5 Unexpected Ways to Network at Your Next Conference
It's a BIG Museum Conference Week, folks!
By some quirk of the scheduling gods, the ASTC Annual Conference (September 16–19 in Phoenix, hosted by Arizona Science Center) and the AASLH/NCPH Joint Conference (also September 16–19, in Providence, Rhode Island) are happening at exactly the same time this year. So unless you've figured out how to be in the Sonoran Desert and Narragansett Bay simultaneously (and if you have, please email me), you've already picked your team.
Either way, you're about to spend three or four days surrounded by hundreds of smart, friendly museum people. Which brings up the eternal question: how do you actually meet any of them?
Because let's be honest, "networking" is a word that makes most of us want to hide behind the coffee urns. It conjures up images of stiff handshakes, elevator pitches, and that guy who hands you a business card before he's told you his name.
So forget all that. Here are five slightly sideways ways to make real connections at your next conference. None require a LinkedIn premium account, and most are free.
1. Bring a Gizmo
Put something small and interesting in your bag. A prototype of a hands-on component. A weird mechanism you found at the hardware store. A 3D-printed gear that doesn't quite work yet. A tiny wooden puzzle.
Then, when you're sitting next to someone at lunch or waiting for a session to start, just... take it out and fiddle with it.
Museum people can't ignore a gizmo. They will ask what it is. They will ask to try it. And suddenly you're not "networking," you're two exhibit nerds geeking out over a thing, which is the best kind of conversation there is.
2. Take the Empty Chair
Here's a simple rule for every meal, coffee break, and reception: never sit with anyone you already know.
I know, I know. Your colleagues are right there, and it's so much easier. But you can talk to your colleagues at home for free. Instead, look for the table with one empty chair and a bunch of unfamiliar faces, walk over, and say the magic words: "Is this seat taken?"
It has never once been taken. And the people at that table are usually just as relieved as you are that someone broke the ice. Some of the longest-running friendships I have in this field started with a rubber-chicken banquet and a "mind if I join you?"
3. Skip a Session (On Purpose)
This one sounds like heresy, but hear me out.
Every conference has a "hallway track," the unofficial, unscheduled conversations that happen in the corridors, on the sidewalk outside, and in the host museum's galleries while everyone else is inside a ballroom watching slides. Some of the most useful things I've ever learned at ASTC or AASLH happened between sessions, not during them.
So pick one time slot where nothing on the program is calling your name, and go wander. Poke at the exhibits in the host museum. Hang around the poster session after the crowd thins. Sit in the lobby with your gizmo (see Tip #1). You'll find the other people who are also playing hooky, and they tend to be the interesting ones.
4. Ask the Vendors What Went Wrong
The exhibit hall is full of people who really want to talk to you, and most attendees treat them like they're radioactive. Big mistake.
Fabricators, AV integrators, software folks, and lighting people are the folks who have seen inside hundreds of museums. They know which materials fail, which institutions are a joy to work with, and which "innovative" technology quietly got unplugged six months after opening.
Don't ask for the sales pitch. Ask them: "What's the project you learned the most from?" or "What's the thing clients always underestimate?" Then just listen. You'll get an education, they'll get a break from the pitch, and you'll both remember each other next time.
5. Play the Long Game (With Actual Paper)
Here's the unexpected part: the best networking at a conference happens after the conference.
Everybody swaps cards, follows each other on social media, and then... nothing. So do the thing almost nobody does anymore: when you get home, send a handful of actual postcards or short handwritten notes to the three or four people you had the best conversations with. "Great to meet you in Phoenix — here's that link I mentioned." That's it.
A postcard costs less than a conference coffee, and I promise it will be the only piece of physical mail that person gets from a museum colleague all year. It sticks on the fridge. It sticks in the memory. And six months later, when they need an exhibit person, a collaborator, or just someone to vent to, guess who they think of?
So there you go. Five ways to network that don't feel like networking, which is precisely why they work.
Safe travels to Phoenix and Providence, everybody! Go find that empty chair!
What's your favorite (or most unexpected) way to meet people at a conference? Let us know in the "Comments" Section below!
Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!
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