Conference Attendance Tips for Trademark Paralegals and AdministratorsPersuading your manager to invest in your professional development and making the most of your conference experience
Alt Legal Team | August 30, 2024
On August 14, 2024, the Trademark Administrators’ Exchange (TMAE) presented a webinar, “TMAE Webinar: The PATH to Conference Attendance.” There, four TMAs—Marlena Champagne, Kara Fielder, Crysta Lemon, and Michelle Renne—discussed how they’ve successfully persuaded their organizations to invest in in their professional development through conference participation. This article summarizes their presentation.
View the webinar recording here.
Prepare for the conversation with your manager
First, determine the right event for you to attend, considering where you are in your career and your level of experience. Think about what you want to accomplish at the event which might include:
- Learning new skills
- Learning about new technology and tools
- Developing leadership skills
- Building your network
It’s also important to consider what your goals are and how those are relevant to your organization. You might also ask your manager why they attend conferences and see if those reasons apply to you too. Then, you can connect your goals into selling points for your manager. Here are a few examples:
- Goal: I want to network.
- Selling Point: The connections you make at the event will have a positive ROI at your organization. Connections can help you resolve disputes quickly which increases efficiency and reduces fees.
- Goal: I want to grow my interpersonal skills.
- Selling Point: Conferences offer speaking opportunities and opportunities to develop your leadership skills and build confidence.
- Goal: I want to learn new skills to progress as a trademark administrator.
- Selling Point: Conferences offer many opportunities to learn substantive skills and become familiar with the latest updates in the law and hot topic issues.
Practical Tip: Check out the INTA TMAP justification letter, which Kara helped to draft.
To find the best event, you can ask for recommendations from people in your network and what they find valuable. You can also review the INTA website and see what’s being offered and check out events and webinars that your vendors are providing (ex. Alt Legal Events and Webinars). You can gather information about the events by performing Google searches and going on LinkedIn, where event organizers will often post information about upcoming events and conferences. Additionally, you can reach out to event organizers or speakers at the events and ask for more information.
Ask and develop an action plan to attend the conference
Schedule a Meeting and Outline Goals
Start off by scheduling a time to discuss the conference. You may schedule this discussion in person or on the phone, depending on what the protocol is at your organization. Next, make sure that you understand your audience at your organization and think about the approach that will work best when asking to attend a conference. You’ll want to identify what is going to demonstrate real value for your organization by your attendance at the conference. Consider factors including:
- What you’re going to learn about – perhaps the conference will be covering a problematic or hot topic.
- Who you’ll be meeting – there may be attendees who are working on similar issues. This is an excellent opportunity to benchmark with them.
- Access to important government partners – you may be able to network and build relationships with government speakers from the US and other countries whom you would otherwise never get to interact with.
- Opportunities to interact with in-house and foreign counsel – perhaps communication with them isn’t ideal and you can prioritize a meeting with them to help them improve the working relationship.
- The exhibit hall – checking out all the vendors provides a great opportunity to learn about the latest and greatest technology and tools.
Once you’ve decided on the factors that are important to your organization, position yourself to ask to attend the conference. Be strategic with how you structure the discussion and don’t ask whether you can attend as a yes/no question. Instead, choose questions like:
- “What’s the process to get approval?”
- “How do I go about getting approval?”
What To Do If You’re Told “No”
If you are told no, try to negotiate. First, seek to understand why you were told no and if it is a “forever no” or if there’s some culture change that can occur within your organization to get to a “yes” if your manager better understands the benefits. Perhaps there is a different conference this year that you can go to and you can try for the other conference next year. A great strategy is to say to your manager that you’d like to come back with another suggestion for a conference in the very near future, showing them that you are committed to attending conferences and taking control over your professional and career development.
An alternative approach when you’re told “no” is to propose splitting the costs with your organization for registration and travel fees. Here are a few helpful ways to reduce costs:
- Locate less expensive accommodations like Airbnbs or consider sharing a room with a friend.
- Use frequent flyer miles and points to offset costs.
- Consider driving or taking the train versus flying, if possible.
- Enter to win an INTA award which will include a conference registration if you win.
Practical Tip: Self-funding your conference attendance is a personal decision. You can choose to do so if you think it’s valuable, but first try to see if there’s wiggle room to get at least a partial budget. You could also ask your organization to let you use company time to attend the conference and not use vacation time if you do self-fund.
Maximize your conference experience
Prepare to Network
Before you arrive, let people know that you’ll be there so you have the opportunity to meet and network. Here are a few key ways to network proactively before the event:
- Reach out to conference attendees and set up meetings to network in a structured way. Often attendee lists will be made available ahead of the conference.
- Put a note in your signature block to let people know that you’ll be attending.
- Join a social media page on LinkedIn or group chats on WhatsApp to find out what’s happening at the conference.
- Reach out directly to registered clients, foreign counsel, and in-house contacts to set up meetings.
Align Activities with Conference Objective
Once you’re at the conference, your primary responsibility is to align your activities with the selling points that got you there in the first place. For example, if networking and maintaining client relationships are at the top of the list, try to attend as many social events as possible. Also, if you are a committee member, prioritize attending those meetings. Key social events to attend include:
- Welcome reception
- Evening social events
- Dine arounds
Choose Activities that Meet Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Think about your strengths and weaknesses and choose the conference activities that are right for you. For example, some people are more introverted and might choose to attend business development activities, dine arounds, and table topics. These activities are a bit more relaxed and offer a small-group setting where you can engage in real conversation and have the opportunity meet others with the same interests.
Practical Tip: Remember that everyone at the conference is there for the same reasons as you are. Use this information to help you overcome your nerves and make the most of your conference experience.
Show value of the experience to your organization
Follow up with Your Contacts
Now that you’re home and you’ve had a great experience, you want to follow up with the connections you’ve made. Think of this as simply making new friends. Send a message on LinkedIn or email, and if you can remember specific topics you discussed, mention those. You can also ask if they’re going to be attending the same conference next year or other conferences.
Present Your Conference Summary
Organize your conference materials, itineraries, notes, etc. and decide what you want to present to your organization. Consider what topics are important to your organization and make sure that you get across the point that the conference had value to you and that you met people who can add value to your organization. Also consider how you want to present your findings, whether by email or PowerPoint.
Set Yourself up for Future Success
If you had a great experience at the conference and want to ensure that you’ll be able to attend this conference and others in the future, here are some important tips to help make the ask much easier next time:
- Keep track of costs and all receipts and try to estimate the costs for the next year and create a simple budget.
- Take advantage of discounts for early registration.
- Create the expectation that this will happen every year and that this cost will be worked into the budget.
- Make sure that your work will be covered while you are out and that you have everything set in place before you leave.
- Any time you have a small win that ties back to the conference, be sure to tell your manager, particularly when it comes to networking and having built a relationship with someone.
- During your annual performance review, try to connect your conference experience to meeting your goals in some way. Also, when writing your goals for the next year, design them such that going to the conference will help you to achieve those goals.