The counselors from our Irvine office are attending the annual WACAC conference this week. Good counselors and admissions officers spend a lot of time at conferences, so it's important to feel like it's time and money well spent. Here are a few tips we've picked up during our conferencing years that might help.
1. Don’t be afraid to pick a session based on the speakers rather than on the subject.
Some of the best sessions we’ve ever attended at conferences discussed topics that had surprisingly little to do with our jobs. But we know when someone like Bruce Poch from Pomona College or Paul Kanarek from The Princeton Review speaks, we always learn something. Great presenters make for great sessions. So don’t be afraid to occasionally pick a great presenter over a session whose subject matter might be more relevant.
2. Try to have meals with people you haven’t met.
If you’re here with colleagues like we are, it’s easy to huddle with familiar faces during the group meals. But there are a lot of great people to meet here, and meals are a perfect time to do it. In fact, some counselors are here without colleagues and will welcome the company. So get to know new people during the meals.
3. Attend the social events.
We do love a good conference social event. It’s a great time to relax and have fun with both current colleagues and new friends who know that several hundred counselors and admissions officers coming together to discuss education makes for one heck of a party. So no matter how inviting a quiet night in your room may be, spend a little time, well, socializing at the socials.
4. Be on the lookout for tips, information and advice you can use when you get back.
This is something we learned from conference veterans. It’s great when you can leave a conference excited about new ideas that you can implement into your job. Experienced counselors know this, and they spend most of the conference on the lookout for those insights. They enter every session hungry for one piece of information, or one suggestion they can take back and use. They think not just about what they’re learning, but also what to actually do with that knowledge when they get back. So feed off that tendency. Ask questions. Write down your ideas as soon as you think of them. Talk with your colleagues not just about what you learned at a great session, but also how you’re going to apply that knowledge back on the job.
5. Remember that you’re here for you, too.
We all go to conferences for the students that we serve. But it’s also important to use conferences as a chance to have fun, to commiserate with colleagues about the challenges and joys of our jobs, and to recharge our batteries so we can do an even better job with our students when we get back. If that means that you skip one session to connect over a beer with some new counselor friends you’ve just made, we think that’s OK.