Later this month I’m heading to Charleston, South Carolina, to attend The National Resume Writers’ Association annual conference.  My motivation for attending is two-fold; not only do I get to sharpen my skills, I get to network with colleagues and industry experts who always infuse me with energy and insight.

Continuing education is essential is any career field. Staying on top of emerging trends and techniques keep you relevant and marketable. Nowadays, changes occur in most industries on a daily basis. By attending a conference, you get a plethora of usable content on a variety of relevant subjects in a short amount of time. I encourage you to consider attending a conference in your own field this year.

The 9 benefits of attending a conference or seminar*:

• Learn new information from industry experts.
• Networking with new people within your field.
• The ability to share your ideas and get immediate feedback from credible individuals.
• Enables you to evaluate the latest technologies that can potentially help grow your business.
• Get answers to your business questions and challenges from credible individuals.
• Collecting of presentation materials to take home with you for later reference and study.
• Learning about facts and statistics that will help you to better understand the market and industry.
• Allows you to increase your email lists and lead generation by receiving other peoples’ business cards.
• Allows you to build traffic to your website by passing out your business cards or brochures.

Industry conferences are very beneficial to job seekers in a variety of ways. Besides the obvious networking opportunities, you’ll also increase your visibility offline, which you can then talk about online. Before you head out to your next conference, check out the attendees list to connect with folks on social media prior to the event. Increasing your exposure will only increase your opportunities!

*edited list as posted on GlobalDMS’s blog