SeoAlchemist

If Scary SEO 2008 taught us anything, it’s that great speakers, good food and plenty of drinks in a mini-con style make for an amazing learning and networking opportunity. IM Spring Break will have all of these elements ad infinitum with three days packed full of amazing speakers plus a poker tournament, a pool side party with award winning barbeque, casual networking and spontaneous social activities.

So, how does one make the most of such a mind-blowing weekend of networking and education?

1. Harness the power of Twitter. Start watching the #IMSpringBreak hashtag on Twitter and follow everyone that is attending or speaking. This will help you keep in contact with other IM Spring Break attendees while you are there. Doing this will also help you become more familiar with the other attendees. The more you know about who you will be spending time with, the better prepared you can be with topics of conversation & questions you want answered. Also, during the sessions, if someone mentions a link you want to review in detail later, tweet the link with #IMSpringBreak. This will kill two birds with one stone as your followers will appreciate the information and you can use your tweets as a “to-read” list after the conference.
2. Organize your networking. Since you will be meeting so many people in a rapid-fire kind of environment, it can be easy to forget who you met or who writes for which site. One of the things that I do to keep track of everyone and make it easier to review who I’ve met is create a bookmark tag and bookmark the sites of everyone I met with the conference tag as well as the site owner’s name. If I learn anything unique about them or if they have a specialty I will also tag the bookmark with those keywords. This way when I’m home going over all of the links I picked up, I can easily associate names to sites and vice versa. It’s the online version of scribbling notes on the back of someone’s business card.
3. Don’t ruin your trip by scheduling your flights during prime networking time. At many conferences, people fly home the evening of the last day of sessions, leaving themselves no time to network with the speakers they were just introduced to in that day’s sessions. While it means paying for an extra night at the hotel, I guarantee you will get your money’s worth if you stay the extra night. After all you’ve already traveled all the way to the conference, you might as well get the most possible out of the trip.
4. Take advantage of all of the night-time events even if they aren’t normally your thing. For instance, even if you don’t know how to play poker, the poker tournament will be an excellent chance to sit down with the people you want to talk to and get to know them on a personal level. So, grab a spot in the tournament and send some time getting to know how your peers react under pressure, when bluffing and who gloats when they win.
5. Speak UpIf this is your first conference or you just haven’t met many people yet, just say hi and introduce yourself. This is a conference of like-minded people; it’s not a high school lunch room. Everyone will be happy to meet you and glad you took the step to introduce yourself. You should also speak up during the Q&A sessions. At most conferences, the Q&A sessions are so invaluable that most people leave as soon as they start. But, at IM Spring Break, the Q&A sessions will be much more interactive and informative so if you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask it and get free advice from some of the top people in internet marketing.
6. Remember that you will be in Florida, which should be renamed Humida. It will be hot and humid the entire time you’re there. If you aren’t used to that kind of weather it can be rather difficult to adapt to and you can end up looking like a drown rat. Choose clothing fabrics that don’t show moisture unless you like the “just ran 3 miles” sweaty look. Ladies, don’t bother with your hair. Your time will be better spent networking than flat ironing your hair just to have it rebel as soon as you walk out of the air conditioning. Hair ties are your best friend in Humida.

Get working now on introducing yourself to IM Spring Break attendees on Twitter, start compiling questions you want to get answers to at the event, and plan your travel intelligently. See you at IM Spring Break, April 2 - 5.

Pamela Lund and CK Chung will be covering their cross country roadtrip to IM Spring Break on Twitter (@Pamela_Lund & @kid_disco); IM Road Trip and they’re looking for sponsors :

Pamela Lund is the CEO of BespokeUSB.com, which sells customized USB memory sticks and promotional USB Flash Drives.