Connecting at Conferences with Janet Falk

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In this episode, Alay and Janet discuss:

Leveraging conferences as in-person events begin their return.
Preparation before a conference.
Scheduling meetings with other conference attendees or speakers.
Standing out before, during, and after the event.

Key Takeaways:

Be proactive in your preparation and attendance at events and in the follow-up.
Understand why you are attending the conference before you go and know what you want to accomplish while you’re there.
Law firm growth happens outside your comfort zone. People are at conferences to connect – so take advantage and connect.
Utilize your assistant or hire a virtual assistant to manage the business cards you are getting and follow up with them to ensure you don’t lose contact with those you meet.

Tweetable Moments:

“Attorneys have to be prepared to make the most of these very expensive events. You’re spending billable time outside of the office, you may be traveling, you may be incurring hotel and meal expenses, you have to prepare in advance so that you can really monetize for future reference your activity at this conference.” — Janet Falk
“You want to meet people with whom you have a shared interest or with whom you have an aligned interest.” — Janet Falk
“It’s not always about finding clients or finding prospective clients. A lot of times, it’s about finding people you want to connect with from a networking perspective. Oftentimes, an attorney’s best referral source is their competition.” — Alay Yajnik
“Plant the seed by contacting those that you think would be interesting and valuable to you and your practice or to whom you might also be helpful. And then make sure that they know how they can get in touch with you and see if you can get their cell phone number.” — Janet Falk
“If you are waiting days or weeks to follow up with people after a conference, that is way too long.” — Alay Yajnik

About Janet Falk:

Janet Falk, Ph.D., is a Communications professional with more than 30 years of experience in-house, as a consultant and at public relations agencies. As Chief Strategist at Falk Communications and Research (www.JanetLFalk.com), she advises attorneys at small law firms and with a solo practice on Media Relations and Marketing Communications to: attract new clients, remain top of mind with prior clients, keep in touch with referral sources, help recruit associates, generate a news story about litigation that puts pressure on opposing counsel and achieve business goals. Janet leads workshops on these topics and advises on media relations, website, LinkedIn profile, articles in non-legal industry trade publications and client newsletters, among other areas. She has published articles on Media Relations and Marketing in The New York Law Journal, The New Jersey Law Journal and Marketing the Law Firm and is a frequent speaker on webinars and podcasts about Public Relations, Networking and Legal Marketing.