2010 Making Media Connections Conference

Well you’ve might have seen last night’s post regarding what to do to prepare for our conference and if you’ve got everything lined up then here’s our list for the top 5 things to do while at MMC2010

1. Follow the conversation and participate. Follow the conversations online and on the ground. Our official hashtag for the conference is #mmc10 but you can also follow #mmc2010. Various panel sessions will be live blogged through out the day including information from @npcommunicator. Feel free to post the best quotes and ideas you here from experts and peers!

2. Introduce yourself to journalists and other communications experts. There will be many journalists and experts presenting and participating in our conference, the best time to connect with them would be just after their panel session. Tell them your name, your organization and something that may be relevant to you that you may have heard form them, then make your pitch. Have you contact card and any other materials you may have prepared to give away so you can follow up later.

3. Join or start a topical discussion at a table during lunch. If you’ve made enough of the right connections early in the day, why not invite them to join you for lunch to discuss things learned in the panel sessions, follow through with a pitch, or gather ideas from peers.

4. Pickup some books and resources. There are some great titles at the book table at the conference including “Share This” by our keynote speaker Deanna Zandt. Other titles include Tim Frick’s book “Return on Engagement: Content, Strategy and Design Techniques for Digital Marketing” and “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survice and Others Die” by Chip & Dan Heath.

5. Grab some free Art patches from Chris Drew. For years now, Chris has volunteered at MMC. Many have enjoyed conversing with him as he creates silk screen patches on-location. He is currently challenging a city “eaves-dropping” law for recording his arrest by Chicago police while giving away his art to the public. He has a fascinating story to share – one that may be taken all the way to the Supreme Court and help define our First Amendment Rights here in Chicago and fully realize a Free Speech Artist’s Movement.

I’m a total geek and when it comes to conferences there are a few things I usually do before heading out to participate. MMC2010 is unique and gives you the opportunity to connect with many people within the communications sector here in Chicago – journalists, communications staff, development folks, executive directors, technologists, PR professionals, educators, bloggers, techies and so much more! Here’s my top 5 things to do to prepare for the 2010 Making Media Connections Conference:

1. Prepare and rehearse your elevator speech. You will meet many potential journalists, freelancers and bloggers who may be interested in your story. Rehearse you elevator speech and be ready – but most importantly, be comfortable about what you have to say. If you need more tips, visit our website to get started.

2. Prepare a wifi or wireless communications device to participate in online conversations. Whether its your mobile phone, laptop or even iPad download a twitter client app to participate or monitor conversations taking place at the conference. Our hashtags this year are #mmc2010 and #mmc10 – why are there two? Not sure, but that’s what people seem to be using. Twitter client apps like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck can save searches in their own columns and can update automatically depending on your settings. You can even share some of the tweets or activities using your facebook app or via the Facebook website. You might have some friends or colleagues that can’t participate the day of but might be interested in hearing what’s happening. You can follow the workshop for updates @npcommunicator. Last year Lumity provided a mobile internet lab for our conference but will not be here this year, but MobileCitizen will and Columbia College Chicago will be providing free wifi… woohoo!

3. Bring plenty of contact cards and any materials that can reference your work. Most likely you will not have the chance to sit and talk to the person you’ve been wanting to pitch for hours on end, but the next best thing you can do is give them material that can help them find more information about you and your work.

4. Bring all of your conference information, including a print out of your registration information, maps to help you plan where you will park and the times and locations of your workshops and panels. You can find all of this information on our conference site. Rooms, locations and schedules for Wednesday and Thursday can be found here as well.

5. Check in with your staff who will not make it to the conference. Get some feedback from some of your staff that can’t make it. This will help you decide which panel sessions to drop into or what sort of materials you can gather from other organizations, news outlets and vendors.

These are just a few suggestions I know I usually follow. Do you have any you can share with others? Let us know! See you MMC2010!

– Demetrio