Smart Event Participation as visitor

Smart Event
Participation
as a Visitor
Smart Event Book Series

Smart Event Participation as a Visitor (Smart Event
Book Series)
Title
Master Steve
Author
Somayeh Amiri, Tara Kamangar
Colleagues
Keyvan
Layout
Designer
Silk Road Publishing (Toronto, Canada)
Publisher
Printed Book: 978-1-990236-25-9
EBook: 978-1-990236-26-6
ISBN
www.MasterSteve.com
Website
Attributions:
Images Credits:pch.vector / Freepik
Note: The author of this book gives the right to use
the present content, provided that the source is cited,
to professors, educators, teachers, lecturers, and aca-
demic and non-academic educational centers, for an
indefinite period.
The copyright of this bookis internationallyregistered
for the author.

Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................4
1. Business Networking..................................................................................................5
2. Investigation and Evaluation before Attending an Event.....................7
3. Determining Goals to Attend an Event.......................................................... 9
4. Identifying the Right Audience to Communicate with........................11
5. Finding a Common Point to Connect with People............................... 13
6. Initiating a Discussion.............................................................................................15
7. Conversation Rules ...................................................................................................18
8. Tips for Shy People..................................................................................................24
9. Farewell Etiquettes...................................................................................................29
10. Business Cards ......................................................................................................... 31
11. Wearing Appropriate Clothing........................................................................33
12. Offering Advertising Items................................................................................35
13. Following-up..............................................................................................................36
14. Attending Various Events....................................................................................38
15. Time Management................................................................................................ 40
16. Social Networks ......................................................................................................42
17. Communication with People to Find Referrals.....................................44
18. Communication with Exhibitors and Sponsors....................................45
19. Attending Plenary Seminars.............................................................................46
20. Attending Foreign Events as a Visitor......................................................... 47

4
Introduction
Numerous events on various topics are held all over the
world every year, and thousands of people attend them.
however, abundance and diversity of these events over-
shadow the key objective and the main reason behind vis-
iting events. In fact, many visitors attend events without
any goal or plan and simply because they don’t want to
miss out on something.
You must have plans and goals and proceed accord-
ingly if you don’t want to come away from events emp-
ty-handed. Otherwise, it would be only a matter of chance
to yield the desired results, but the one who plans is not
looking for accidental results.
Just as the case with other books in "Smart Business"
series, this book teaches you to take the matter of attend-
ing events and view it from various perspectives. You also
learn to apply the best methods in order to benefit from
these opportunities towards your goals.

5 Smart Event Participation as a Visitor
.

. Business Networking
One great event that every business needs to constantly
participate in is business networking, or in other words,
events with the subject of gathering among businesses. The
aims of attending such events are to communicate with
other businesses and to develop the business networks.
¾
In every event and seminar you may attend, you need
to use business networking. This issue is so import-
ant that it can be said that the growth of any business
depends on its success in establishing social relations.
The kind of business you run does not matter; from a
grocery store and a beauty salon to a factory with mul-
tiple production lines, in all of them you need to com-
municate with other people.
¾
The audience you need to communicate with involve
different groups;
ƒ
The first group includes your service suppliers
or providers;
ƒ
The second group involves your customers,
both major and minor customers;
ƒ
The third group involves the advertising and
marketing activists, and you communicate with
them and attempt to attract them to help you in
branding;

6 Business Networking
ƒ
The fourth group contains the elite workforces
that you seek to attract in job-related events and
job fairs.
¾
In this method of communicating with businesses, you
turn the event environment into a means of commu-
nication; it can be either an event and a seminar about
communication and networking, or an event on other
subject matters.

.

. Investigation and Evaluation
before Attending an Event
Before going to any event, investigate about it;
¾
Who are the event organizers?
¾
Who are the exhibitors in the event?
¾
Who are the event sponsors?
¾
Who are the visitors of that event?
¾
When is the event held? What day of the week and
what month of the year is it held on?
Evaluation of the event organizer would
help you evaluate the event itself.
For example, if the event organizer is the Food Trade
Union, activists in that field will certainly attend that event.
If the organizer is a private company, investigate to know
what market share it has, for example.
The timing of holding the event will
determine the type of its visitors.

8 Investigation and Evaluation before Attending an Event
For example, if an event is held during business hours
and working days, it indicates that the majority of visitors
are non-employed, so attending such an event is a good
opportunity to find a workforce. Likewise, most visitors to
events held on holidays and weekends are business owners
and employees. By assessing an event, you can determine
if that event is relevant to your business and if you need to
attend or not.
An event evaluation, in order of importance,
includes evaluating the event organizer,
exhibitors, sponsors, and finally, visitors.
Plenty of the information needed to review
each event can be found on the website and
information channels of that event.
Note
Notice

.

. Determining Goals to
Attend an Event
¾
Have a goal for everything you do. Prior to attending
an event, determine your goal based on the results of
the initial research you did and follow that goal until
the last moment of attending the event.
Your goal in attending an event should
be establishing a collaborative environ-
ment with suppliers, customers, mar-
keters, and workforces.
¾
Define realistic and achievable goals for yourself. Your
goal, for instance, should not be to introduce yourself
to 150 people in one event. This requires you to talk
incessantly for at least 750 minutes and all your meet-
ings need to be successful.
Events are the best opportunity to find a
referral for your business.

10 Determining Goals to Attend an Event
¾
One of the most significant sidelines of participating in
an event is that if your audiences do not become your
customers, they will become good referrals for you, at
least. Your audiences at the event should remember you
as a good person and talk about you in different places.
Having good referrals is a cost-effective
marketing method, and it is provided that
they remember you well and their mind is
engaged in your activities.
Sometimes you cannot attract someone in one event,
but find dozens of good referrals. Sometimes finding a
good referral for your business is more helpful than all the
plans you have for your goals.
Your audience may be interested in your work ideas or
your personality or even the way you dress. The services
you offer may also be interesting enough to persuade them
to speak about those services everywhere. In a large num-
ber of the cases, you may not know which one of these
attracts people; therefore, you need to consider all of them
so that at least one can attract the audience.
From the moment you start investigation on
an event, define a set of behaviors for your
own to influence people through them.
Note
Notice

.

. Identifying the Right Audi-
ence to Communicate with
¾
In your event attendance plan, specify what kind of peo-
ple you should target. Based on the initial investigation
and evaluation of the event, you know who attends it.
Choose your target audiences among them.
You may inevitably meet other people in the mean-
time, but your priority should be people who are
within your target market. This scope can be filtered
based on criteria such as age, gender, type of clothing,
personality, and several other things.
¾
In any group, look for the quality of people, not their
quantity. A group of one hundred members does not
necessarily take precedence over a group of five. You
may communicate with two people in a group of five,
which can be the best option for you to obtain your
goal of attending the event.
¾
Be careful in identifying people; it is important who
you communicate with and who you spend more time
with.

12 Identifying the Right Audience to Communicate with
You are not to judge people by their
appearance in communication.
¾
90 per cent of the people in an event attend the event to
communicate. Therefore, you should not be deceived
by their appearance. In that case, you may spend too
much time on them.
¾
Specify how to communicate with each type of
addressee in your event attendance plan. Choose a
method that will help you obtain your goal. The
method of making communication with sponsors, for
example, is different from the method of communi-
cating with job seekers.

.

. Finding a Common Point to
Connect with People
While attending an event, many people stand in a
corner, look at others and do not communicate with
others.
¾
To take advantage of the opportunity that an
event offers you and also to communicate with oth-
ers seek to find common points. These commonal-
ities can include conversations between two people
that you may hear, or familiar faces, or any other
excuse.
Consider each small commonality as an
opportunity to start a communication.
¾
Make talking about that common ground an over-
ture to start a conversation. Do not claim the basic
premise without introduction. Afterwards, you will
find that you either understood or misunderstood
the common points. Then, you can continue the con-
versation with curiosity about the audience, rather
than saying goodbye and ending the communication.
Ask about the other side's field of activity, for exam-

14 Finding a Common Point to Connect with People
ple. Try to keep the communication active with other
questions. If the audience did not agree with you, at
least you might learn something new from a different
point of view.
Questioning others should be based on some
considerations. Avoid harsh or intrusive
questions.
Suppose that you work in the poultry industry. You
start talking about the same business with someone
else. If s/he also acts in the same guild, you will con-
tinue the conversation and talk about the technical and
economic issues of that guild. But if that person does
not work in that field, ask politely about her/his field
of working.
Those who attend the events automatically have a num-
ber of questions in their minds, which can be very helpful
for communication.
If you are new to networking business, pre-
pare some questions to ask in advance.
Notice 1
Notice 2

.

. Initiating a Discussion
¾
When three or four people are talking about a topic,
approach them and see if they are a good option for
communication.
If it was your favorite topic, without interrupting
them, get involved in the discussion in some way with
one of the topics in which you are proficient. If the
conditions were not right for your communication,
leave them respectfully.
Do not forget that others see you. Even the same
few people realized that you were going to join them;
when you leave them without notice, they would not
take you seriously in the future.
¾
Smiling is a trick to open a conversation. As soon as
you meet others with a smiling face and smile at oth-
ers while greeting them with a few simple words, the
first contact is made and the ice of the relationship is
broken.
¾
Nothing can substitute a smile, and no behavior is as
repulsive as moroseness. Even if you have a gloomy
face, attempt to represent a smiling face in public
places to avoid being prejudged by others.
If some people have negative prejudges about you,
it will be very difficult to change that mindset and
make communication with them.

16 Initiating a Discussion
¾
The set of what you represent in the first encounter will
remain in the mind of your audience. What is import-
ant is to make the opposite side feel that even if they
cannot work with you today, in the future they may do.
Attempt to be attractive to others.
Attractiveness is important in business rela-
tionships, but attractiveness does not depend
on the face; it is associated with the things
you state, it depends on your mastery of the
subject, it is related to your behavior and
your sobriety, it is tied to the appropriate and
typical dressing style.
¾
Somepeopleretaintheirpastrelationshipsandconstantly
keep in touch with old friends. This can deepen the scope
of their relationship and make them look attractive in the
community. Such relationships will help them promote
their business and benefit others indirectly.
¾
Attempt to share your good communications with the
other side. When you do this, the addressees would
realize that you have something to offer. As soon as
people recognize that they can achieve something with
you, they will take the relationships with you seriously.
Note

¾
Use your friends to get to know others. Ask them to
provide the right opportunity for you to achieve your
goal in the event space. Use any chance to communi-
cate with others and introduce yourself.
¾
Create an opportunity for dialogue in different ways,
ask the address of one of the booths, for example, and
initiate the conversation.
¾
Find out the tools that you can use to get in touch with
unfamiliar people. Practice what methods you can
apply to talk with a stranger.

18 Conversation Rules
.

. Conversation Rules
¾
With a short introduction, engage in the main discus-
sion; the introduction does not need to be long in order
to let you meet a large number of people. After the pre-
sentation, give a brief introduction of about 20 seconds
about yourself including your name and the field of
your activity, and then ask for the other side's name and
profile. Practice how to introduce yourself beforehand.
¾
Sometimes, the other side's response depends on how
you introduce yourself; therefore, include the infor-
mation you expect him/her in your introduction.
Afterwards, make an effort to establish a warm and
intimate relationship with him/her, and then speak to
the core of the topic, which is talking about your busi-
ness and your product and services.
¾
Do not provide the other side with ambiguous infor-
mation. For instance, if you intend to hire someone,
state specifically what your goal is.
¾
Provide a description of your business within a minute
at most. If you think that the other side does not want to
continue talking, terminate the conversation. Anyway,
whether or not there is an understanding between you,
friendly conversations have been exchanged between
you and you can exchange your business cards.

¾
When you received the business card of your audience,
do not immediately put it in your pocket, but look at it
in order to both respect the other side and make sure
that you did not receive an anonymous business card
only containing the features of the company, because
in such a situation, you actually lose your connection
with him/her.
¾
If a meeting is specifically important to you, take notes
about it, because as the number of appointments
increases, you may forget plenty of the things you talked
about. At least, write down the keywords exchanged.
These keywords will turn out to be useful in the future.
¾
Attach your note sheet to your business card, other-
wise they will be very difficult to find and match.
There is a group of people who speak elo-
quently, but attempt to persuade the other
side to accept their words with pressure and
insistence, the result is either an argument
or the silence of the other side, in which case
such people will be losers.
If you expect the other side to listen to
your talk, you must be a good listener, too.
Note

¾
To communicate with an individual, you need to know
who s/he is and what her/his field of activity is. Of
course, manage your time, and if the other side talked
too long, manage the conversation; for example, inter-
rupt him/her with short, polite sentences. Avoid side
issues and deal with the heart of the matter quickly.
¾
Keep the audience interested in talking to you.
I talked to a large media group a while ago. At the end
of the meeting, one of the officials of that company told me,
"I am very interested in your character and I would like to
work with you, because you stated everything clearly and did
not mention irrelevant points. We did not have to make an
effort to talk to you."
Several times at parties that I have held, I have seen two
strangers go to awindow to smoke andmeet, andthis acquain-
tance leads to multimillion-dollar deals between the two.
¾
While talking, focus on your speech and do not keep
rolling eyes. Make eye contact to make the other side
realize that you care about him/her.
Thirty years ago, in order to look polite it was cus-
tomary to lower the head while speaking. This method
has no appeal anymore. In conversation, you need to
make eye contact. Observance of these etiquettes will
bring mutual respect.
¾
It is less common for the other side not to observe eti-
quettes in response. Of course, someone who does not
behave properly is not worth working with; if you still
need such a person anyway, just tolerate the behavior.

¾
Body language will send a message to the other side.
Turning the head, repeatedly moving the feet, exces-
sive movements can disturb the other side's focus and
will not send a good message.
¾
Just as you watch over others in the gatherings, others
may watch over you, too. Even when you are alone in a
corner, some people can see you and they may be the
people you want to talk to.
Therefore, be careful not to lean while sitting.
Observe the courtesy principles in all your behavior.
By misbehaving, you may create a presupposition for
the other side and you may lose him/her.
¾
Use a method according to the goal you have defined to
communicate with each person. If you are going to go
to a meeting and attract people, it will be useful to have
self-confidence and to represent yourself as wise, but in
many cases you may lose your audiences, because they
see a kind of gesture in your behavior and an intimate
atmosphere may not take shape for communication.
¾
Convey the sense to the other side that you like to commu-
nicate with him/her because of his/her personality traits.
If the people you are talking to suppose that you
talk to them to take advantage of their job position,
you have lost them at the very first moment and they
will take a stand against you from the very beginning.
Of course, in a business meeting, you may specifically
state that you are talking to a person precisely because
of his/her job position, but in general you should con-

sider that person important. In case you exaggerate
that person's job position, it can create a top-down
view and block communication.
¾
When you are going to speak with individuals in
important positions, in addition to attempting to
respect them based on the culture of their country, do
not restrict your strategy.
Execute your entire preset plans, including the
introduction and conversation schedules; with the
exception that you probably do not need to ask the
other side to introduce anything and you would have
more opportunity to speak.
¾
Based on the other side's response, be mentally pre-
pared to continue the discussion. Suppose you ask the
other side about the guild s/he works for. The person
answers s/he is working in the flooring industry. You
might be in the business of selling software and do not
need flooring at all. If you do not prepare yourself to
continue the conversation, you will have problems.
¾
Ask the person your questions in the appropriate
opportunities during the conversation. Questions
should not terminate the discussion; you should leave
the discussion open to be able to continue it later.
Do not ask yes/no questions, ask them about the
interesting points of their business, for example, or
about their role in that business; about the projects
they have already worked on or they are currently
working on.

If you found out the other side as a good partner, ask
questions to make him/her talk. Making person feel
comfortable so they can talk to you is very important.
Remember that they have also come to that event to
communicate and intend to represent their capabil-
ities to you. When you give good feelings to others,
they will attempt to make you feel good, unless it is
against the social etiquette.
¾
If possible, include other people in your target circle
in the conversation. This way, you save time; instead of
one person, for example, you may speak with five peo-
ple and finally, you receive their contact information.
In this way, you shine as the star of the crowd, and
the audience will think better of you because you are
the founder of the group and the initiator of the dis-
cussion, where everyone has come for the same pur-
pose.
As a result, attempt to give a 20-second introduc-
tion of you when you shake hands. It is better to hear
the initial introduction of the other side at the same
time. Summarize the main discussion in one minute,
too.
¾
Avoid pranks when talking. Humor must be carefully
planned. With badinage, you may temporarily attract
the attention of a few people, but in reality you humil-
iate yourself and the whole communication strategy of
you will be questioned.

24 Tips for Shy People
.

. Tips for Shy People
¾
Try to be communicative. Supposed you are even an
introvert, you should not stand in a corner and watch
others. You will not lose anything by talking with oth-
ers. If you stand at a certain point for a long time, you
should know something has gone wrong with the issue
and you are wasting time.
¾
Move around to different parts of the event space and
observe the happenings in the event to find an excuse
to communicate with different people.
¾
Some people are not shy, but it takes time for
them to break ice in the gatherings. Speaking with
people you already know can help you most to har-
monize with the space. Go to the event with a friend.
This will make you get involved into the discussions
easier.
¾
Do not start with words like "sorry". In this case,
you communicate with the same initial embarrass-
ment. Speak strongly so your shyness may disap-
pear.
Initiate the conversation with a greeting or the rem-
iniscent of a meeting you had in the past. You can ask
for your friend's help to start a conversation and grad-
ually get involved in the discussion.

¾
Initiate conversations with people with cheerful faces.
These people give you the confidence you need to start
the discussion more easily.
¾
Choose the right time to initiate the conversation. If
someone is walking fast and is leaving the place, s/he is
unlikely to have a conversation with.
When two people are having a hot discussion, wait
until their conversation is ended or wait for their
attention to you, and then get into conversation with
them. You can stand beside them and wait for them to
invite you somehow.
¾
Many people have name tags on their chests in
events. Attempt to read those tags and call the other
side by name. This method will give you more
self-confidence and the other person will pay more
attention to you.
¾
If you cannot initiate a conversation, at the beginning,
give your business card to the other side as a prelude to
start the conversation.
¾
Be present in the catering department. There are a
greater number of people in that area and you can start
a conversation with a joke about foods.
¾
You do not have to present a weird face to communi-
cate with others. Attempt to be yourself, just put your-
self in a space to make contact and open the door of
dialogue with others.
Another person may initiate a conversation with
you while you are standing in a corner.

I had attended an event and an old lady came up and
greeted me and started talking. "I have decided to communi-
cate with ten people today and you are the second one, would
you like to talk to me?", she said. So easily, this lady got me
to communicate. You can use the same method to start
a conversation.
¾
As soon as you talk with someone, you can also com-
municate with his/her acquaintances. If one of the
people in the gathering leaves you, you can continue
the conversation with the next person.
¾
Use the first connection to communicate with other
people. Try to talk about your commonalities and
directly or indirectly ask the other side to be a bridge
to connect you with others. This person can be your
friend.
Obviously, someone can do this for you if you
have the most in common with, whether in business,
interests, or behaviors such as eating and drinking
habits.
¾
A shy person is always worried about being treated
coldly by others. Take away from that fear and con-
clude that if someone rejects you, you will not lose
anything. You do not know that person. That person
is someone like you who has come to that space with
specific goals and intentions.
¾
When you start talking, prepare yourself for being
rejected by the other side. Do not fear to hear "no". Shy
people blush and get cold when they hear a rejection.

After hearing "no" and passing, take a deep breath
and move on to the next person. Prepare yourself to
hear the next "no". This way, you will start communi-
cating with the next person. Many of your problems
will be solved if you consider that you may not see that
person again, and if you are prepared to hear a large
number of "no"s.
Shy people should act against their spir-
its and initiate a dialogue all at once.
¾
Do not fear to greet different people and ask about their
work. In the worst case you might be treated coldly. In
any case, you will not lose anything, but you may gain
many things.
When you leave the event, you need to
achieve several goals for the time you spent
there.
¾
If your performance at the event is not entirely suc-
cessful, you should have met the minimum of your
expectations; one of these minimums is to give your
business card to others and then, with different fol-
low-up methods, make them your customers or refer-
rals.
Note

¾
If you have correctly conducted the research stages
and design of the map, plenty of your communication
problems will be solved, even if you are a completely
shy person.

.

. Farewell Etiquettes
¾
Attempt to end the conversation politely. Make the
other side feel that you have spent enough time with
him/her. Even if you find that your relationship with
that person is not in line with your goals, leave him/
her friendly and respectfully, because everyone in the
world can be useful some day.
¾
To terminating the conversation, find a word among
the speech of your addressee and end the conversation
with that.
¾
Shake hands with your addressees and express your
pleasure to meet them when saying goodbye. Shak-
ing hands, both at the beginning and at the end of the
meeting, is a good opportunity to enhance intimacy.
When shaking hands, look into the other person's
eyes.
¾
After the farewell, do not leave the person quickly, wait
for a moment and keep going with confidence and a
smile.
¾
At the time of farewell, attempt to exchange some key
phrases, such as "If you would, we can get in touch" or
"how can we work together?" Use these sentences as a
basis for future communications.

30 Farewell Etiquettes
If you do not find a good strategy for farewell, you
waste all your efforts and the audience may com-
pletely ignore you.
¾
If you are going to attend another event after that one,
you can consider this as a strategy to say goodbye to
your audience. It can also be a way to make the space
more intimate.
For example, you can ask the other side "do you
know that a certain event is going to take place next
week? Give me your phone number to send you the
information about that event." In this way, you can
establish the first contact and, on the other hand, pres-
ent yourself as an active person who attends various
events.
You can save the details of the next few events
on your cell phone and send it to the people you
meet. At the top of the message, write: "it was a
pleasure to meet you and I hope we will work
together in the future." In this way, you have both
his/her phone number and give your phone num-
ber to that person indirectly and make him/her
remember you.

.
10Business Cards
¾
Always carry a business card and anything that rep-
resents you; have lots of business cards, brochures and
gifts like a pen with the company name engraved on in
the trunk of your car and have some of these items in
your bag or pocket. You may be too busy like me and
sometimes forget to pick up these items, so if you have
some of them in your coat pocket, you will not have a
problem anymore.
Never enter any event or meeting without
having something to introduce you.
¾
You can give the business card to the other side in the
first twenty seconds or in a minute that you introduce
your business.
It is important to give the card to the other side at
the right time, because the business card will not be
applied exactly at the time of presentation and it will
be used to make subsequent contacts.
Notice

32 Business Cards
¾
The business card should be a reminder of your per-
sonality. So, take enough time to design it. If the busi-
ness card fails to attract the audience and represent
your business, it will destroy your effort.
¾
Think on the selection of the design and material of the
business card. Some people still follow the old-fash-
ioned way and choose a simple business card with a
white background and a simple design.
¾
The letters on your business card should not be small
and can be legible to the elderly.
¾
Do not use strange fonts; the information on the card
should be clear and legible.
¾
Do not leave the back of the business card blank and
use it to express your business slogan or a discount
offer.
¾
Have two types of business cards; the business card
you use for the general public and the business card
whose targets are businesses.
For example, the business card that you use for the
general public may have a calendar or a ruler on the
back, but the second type of business card contains
information about your business or a place to take
notes on the back.

.
11Wearing Appropriate
Clothing
¾
While observing all the above principles, you should
pay special attention to how you get dressed and adorn
your appearance. Do not think about whether your
clothes are branded or not. Try to be yourself. Wear
your typical clothes.
¾
Your clothes should fit together and fit your body.
Make efforts to wear clothes that fit your actual height,
that are very tidy and appropriate.
¾
There is a technique through which some people intro-
duce a brand by wearing clothes. Employees of a company
usuallywear clothes designed to introduce their own brand
instead of the typical clothes such as suits; a T-shirt and
a hat with the company brand engraved on, for instance.
Choosing this type of overlay depends on the nature of the
event, because in this case you make yourself a mobile bill-
board, so your personality should be attractive, too.
¾
Keep in mind that with certain overlays, more than 50
per cent of people may make fun of you, you will be
insignificant to a quarter of the people, and another
quarter may say: "not bad!" Use your communication
skills and even change the perspective of the people
who make fun of you to accompany you.

34 Wearing Appropriate Clothing
In an event, I wrote the name of the country in beautiful
handwriting on a T-shirt. I aimed to promote the website I
was launching. I had engraved the website address under the
country name. The reception was so great that even if I had
had 10000 of those T-shirts available, they would have been
sold, while many people thought there would be no reception.
It is important to have a specific plan for any activity.
¾
Another way to communicate in the event is to move
in groups with a specific outfit. You can attend an event
in uniforms along with a group of colleagues or staff
you have hired as models and impress the space with
your brand. The highest application of this method is
branding and the goal is not to attract the audience to
the business, unless the space is appropriate and you
can start talking with others.

.
12Offering Advertising Items
¾
It was earlier mentioned that when attending an event,
have some advertising items with you. If you intend
to attract customers, depending on the type of event,
have special discount offers, too. You can print your
incentive plan on the back of your business card. This
method will promote your relationship with people to
a higher level.
¾
Consider the position of the audience to provide an
incentive plan. Sometimes, the discounts include peo-
ple who enjoy a good financial status. For example, if
you are going to offer your book, you need to know
who you are offering a discount. For example, offering
a 20 percent discount to a person in a high financial
and social position may not be attractive. In such cases,
you may need to sign your book and grant it as a gift to
attract these people.
Offering a discount plan is part of the
negotiation exit strategy, but some peo-
ple mistakenly offer a discount package
at the very beginning of the negotiation.

36 Following-up
.
13Following-up
¾
The most important thing after leaving the event is to
categorize the business cards you collected. Contact
the people you talked with within 24-48 hours; express
your gratefulness for taking the time to talk with you,
and state your pleasure to meet them.
¾
Pursuing the issue is a very important part and a con-
tinuous procedure. Remind them at different times
what you talked about. In order not to annoy the other
person by these repetitions, each time you speak with
them, share a new point with them so that they hear
new points from you.
¾
In the process of staying in touch with the people you
meet, both remind your brand to them and provide an
opportunity for your brand to be introduced by them.
¾
Pursue the issue through emails. There is nothing
wrong with calling once, the discomfort starts when
you keep calling and say repetitive words. If that per-
son is not interested in your services, keep a note of it
somewhere and beware that the person may represent
you in the long term.
¾
Group and codify the people you meet to make the
optimal use of your time and simultaneously make
proper connections with them. For example, give the

code D to people who are not interested at all in con-
tinuing the communication and collaboration. Any
contact with such people may be annoying and you
may only need to contact them once every three or
four months, but for the first time, call in the first week
and remind them of your negotiation.
Assign the code A to people who expressed an inter-
est in continuing the negotiation with you. For codes
A and B, write a summary of the exchanged negotia-
tions. The degree of seriousness for the rank B is less,
and with ranks C and D make contacts only over time.
¾
Maintain a variety of means of communication and use
tools such as telephones, emails, and letterwriting processes.
¾
When sending an email, letter, or calling a person, state
what you mean as briefly as possible. Speak concisely,
directly express the main issue. In this case, you do not
need a preamble. At the same time, your main concern
should not be selling a product. Any communication is
not supposed to end in the sale every time.
¾
Your email design and text content should be attrac-
tive. If there is an introduction, it needs to be relevant
to the text, rather than an irrelevant introduction that is
useless to advance the subject. In that communication,
make a variety of points, for example, say something
about the company's new services or send the other
side a discount voucher. As it was mentioned, your
emails should not just include vouchers, but attempt
to make some interesting points, too.

38 Attending Various Events
.
14
Attending Various Events
¾
Attend various events for more communication. This
will make you more successful in finding good refer-
rals, branding, sales, recruiting and working with suc-
cessful distributors.
There is no better and more important
tool than networking to develop busi-
nesses.
The more events you attend, the more
diverse your audience will be and the closer
you will become to your goal.
The stronger your public relations, the bet-
ter and more progress you will make in
business; you can find good teams, good
investors, good referrals, good suppliers and
distributors.
Note 1
Note 2

¾
Attend different events with various strategies. When
you go to a sports event, take one type of strategy, and
if you go to a community of university students, take
another strategy. According to your initial investiga-
tions, you will find out what kind of communication
you can make in each event.
¾
Attend a variety of events that are relevant to your
goals because each event has its own audience. In a
case you are an accountant or a lawyer or belong to
any other certain profession, and only attend events
related to your field, you will satisfy only one of your
goals, which is updating your knowledge.

40 Time Management
.
15Time Management
The issue of time management when visiting an event is
extremely important.
¾
On arrival at the event, identify the space there and
learn the roadmap.
By identifying the event space, you can provide
a better schedule for your attendance and make the
optimal use of your time. Events are usually held in
very large spaces, by identifying the space you can
avoid being lost and wasting your time.
¾
Monitor different people and spend your time only
with those who are compatible with your goal.
¾
Divide your time into two parts; devote a part to com-
municate with people you do not know, and another
part to connect with people who you have already
made plans for.
¾
Consider a specific deadline for each appointment. Do
not waste your time in a booth. Spend more time there
only if you are inevitable. Otherwise, do not change
your schedule.
¾
Consider specific time limits for breaks, if you do not
take some rest, your negotiations will be overshadowed
by fatigue and work efficiency will decrease. Ensure
there is water within your reach, because when your

body is dehydrated, the smile disappears from your
lips and you frown, and ultimately, you may not obtain
the desired result.
¾
Do not look for your acquaintances in meetings, the
more time you spend with them, the more time you lose.
Greetings and small talks with acquaintances are
enough just to break your ice and prepare you for
communication and negotiation with others and make
others know you as a social person.
Spending time with the people you
always have access to will only take you
away from your goals.
¾
Be prepared to finish your speech in a minute in your
communications and attempt to make the most of
your attendance at the event.
You attend the event to hunt! One of the
rules of hunting is not to waste time.
¾
Leave there half to one hour before the end of the
event in order not to get caught in long queues on pub-
lic transportation.

42 Social Networks
.
16Social Networks
¾
Use social network tools to communicate with others.
Be active on social networks.
¾
Share photos of your presence on various events on
social networks. Use relevant Hashtags when sharing
so the followers can find you.
¾
Take photos of famous figures that are present in the
event and share them on your business pages on social
networks.
Do not take selfies. Selfies are appropriate for fam-
ily relationships but not for business. Selfies mean
that you are smaller than those people, and this way of
presenting yourself is not right.
¾
Create content for your social network pages using the
event space as much as possible.
There is a tool on Facebook that you can use to
announce your position.
Showing off will cause people to become away from
you, but if you can present yourself in the right way,
you will achieve good results.
¾
When you share your photos in different situations at
different times, you introduce yourself as an active and
interested person in business and cause others take you
seriously for cooperation.

¾
While speaking with others, you can take their busi-
ness cards or a sample of their product and share the
photos on your social networks. This way, you will stay
in the minds.
¾
Consider that social networks are not used properly
in plenty of cases. Insulting comments may be posted
below your posts, you can restrict comments on the
page or, allow them to be published after reviewing so
that nothing bad is spread.

44 Communication with People to Find Referrals
.
17Communication with
People to Find Referrals
Sometimes, despite reviewing and following all the tips,
you may not get the desired result from an event, but this does
not mean you need to leave the event in the first few minutes.
¾
Try to modifyyour attendance plan based on the atmo-
sphere of the event and make the most use of it. The
least advantage you may take of an event is finding a
representative for your business.
¾
With the right strategy, learn how to communicate
with others. If you cannot conclude within a minute
that the audience is the right person you are looking
for, change your strategy.
Do not confine yourself to communi-
cating with people, if communication
with the audience is not in line with
your goal, do not waste your time and
stay away from that person.
¾
Through gaining experience, you can identify the
right people and, over time, you will learn the strategy
of terminating a negotiation.

.
18
Communication with
Exhibitors and Sponsors
¾
When you enter the space of an event, first try to get
acquainted with the event organizer. Event organizers
have various communications and extensive activities,
and getting to know them can be highly constructive.
¾
A large event has a large number of exhibitors and spon-
sors too, and you need to identify these two categories
before attending the event, know who they are, and
design a specific strategy to communicate with them.
¾
Some exhibitors are not appropriate for you to work
with; with others you can work in some areas, they can
become your customers, they can be your suppliers, or
you may be able to carry out joint projects with them.
¾
Design a communication strategy with the event's
sponsors before you attend there. Prepare completely;
provide the text of your speeches and suggestions to
make the best use of your time.
¾
Make a checklist andwrite down the names of the people
you want to meet on. Design a specific plan for each of
these people and know what to offer to them. They may
say something in reply that you have not anticipated.
However, since you have been prepared in advance, you
will be very successful in managing the situation.

46 Attending Plenary Seminars
.
19
Attending Plenary
Seminars
¾
In addition to events, prepare yourself to attend at lec-
tures and seminars. Some speakers can be useful to
you. They may become your client or they might be a
professor to consult with.
¾
The lectures schedule will be announced in advance.
Investigate to see which speakers are compatible with
your purposes. Do not spend time with people who are
not involved in the circle of your audience.
¾
In some events, the list of some visitors is announced.
This simplify things for you and helps you find your feet
in a certain area. It also helps you look for specific people
in that place. You may even find such people on social net-
works and make appointments with them. By doing this,
you can prepare the mental background of that person.

.
20
Attending Foreign
Events as a Visitor
Plenty of the things that were mentioned about attend-
ing domestic events can also apply to foreign events. There
are some different tips that will be reviewed here in gen-
eral.
¾
As a visitor, check what companies have booths at the
event, check the interior map of the event, know the
ways to go to the event, and know how far it is from
your place of residence. The significance of this issue
becomes twofold abroad because you do not know the
addresses.
¾
Mark the booths you are going to visit on the event
map. Plenty of events in the world now have their own
specialized applications and you can receive related
information through such applications.
¾
Investigate if your mobile operator is active in the tar-
get country; if not, check how you can use local SIM
cards.
¾
Make a checklist of things you have to do in the event.
Guess what you may encounter. Tick off on the check-
list the things you did because when you get involved
in the congestion of the event, you may forget a num-
ber of your plans.

48 Attending Foreign Events as a Visitor
¾
When you take part in an event, make sure to have
extra shoes and clothes in your bag because you do
not know what is going to happen, especially when
your place of residence is far away; otherwise if
something unexpected happens, you may miss the
chance to visit the event. Consider that the event is
unrepeatable.
¾
It makes lots of sense to have a wheeled bag with you so
that you can put the catalogs you collect in, which will
totally weigh a lot. Collect several catalogs to review
them later; therefore, provide the chance to collect the
most catalogs for you.
¾
Do not try to collect promotional gifts in the event
because this will distract you from your main goals.
Take only the gifts that are samples of products and
may spark an idea in your mind.
¾
Another strategy to reduce the load carried is to enter
the contact number of people on the mobile phone or
take a photo of the people's business cards. All com-
panies have the catalog on their websites; therefore,
having a business card or the website address can be
enough.
Be sure to bring a business card with you,
because a large number of people will not
take you seriously unless they receive your
business cards.
Note

¾
Attach the pin badge or ID card given to you at busi-
ness events to your chest properly because plenty of
exhibitors will decide how seriously they can take you
based on your job information. Attaching a pin badge
will both increase your credibility and save the time
spent on introduction.
¾
Design a timetable for yourself. Specify your appoint-
ments and mark the desired booths on the map, set a
precise schedule for each of your plans based on the
time you stay in the event.
I went to an event in Las Vegas a while ago, and I was
about to miss many of the booths I intended to visit because I
had not taken the checklist with me.
¾
Visit crowded booths with long queues only if you
have visited the other booths you intended. Do not
miss other booths for only one booth. Stay away from
booths which you have nothing to do with and do not
waste your time talking nonsense.
¾
In a case you are representing a wellknown com-
pany, it is you research and know more about other
people that are attending the event on behalf of
your company, too. If other people attend too, each
can undertake a part of the work by dividing the
tasks.
¾
In the preliminary investigation, identify all the details
of the event and even specify the type of visitors
because some of the visitors may form part of your
audience.

50 Attending Foreign Events as a Visitor
¾
 The seminars and training sessions held at the event
may be useful to you and you may need to attend.
Identify the topic of the seminars in advance so that
you can make the most of them. If you have access to
the people in question in that place, contact them if
possible.
¾
You may have to make changes to your schedule for
any reason. Be flexible and stay calm.
¾
Find a suitable accommodation for yourself. Book an
accommodation in a hotel that is in close proximity to
the venue where the event is going to be held. If the
hotel is high-cost, choose a hotel that is close to the
public transport stations or special services of the event.
A large number of visitors and exhibitors are proba-
bly accommodated in the hotels around the event and
you can communicate with them there. You can make
plenty of appointments and hold meetings at the same
hotel and at times other than the event time.
¾
Always smile, especially with exhibitors at the venue.
¾
Ultimately, take the constant principle of "follow-
ing-up" very seriously. Despite the fact that exhibitors
may seek to find you, you are also in search of your
goals there. Design a "follow-up" strategy and contact
those companies based on a proper scheduling.

Smart Event Participation as visitor

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