If you are still attending conferences with round table discussion and PowerPoint slides, you're wasting time, money, and falling behind.
Without great effort, professionals can perform a quick #Google search and find a professional conference on nearly any subject. Hosting a conference with too little food and too many sessions seems to be the metric used to evaluate success for national organizations everywhere. With sessions ranging from #personalbranding to #entrepreneurship, attendees select from a smorgasbord of topics designed to inspire, identify trends and "develop" professionals. Here's the problem - #success is too often defined as attendance and the quality of the conference #swag. Let's stop pretending that San Diego, Chicago, and Miami are not influences when selecting how professional dollars will be spent. You may be hurting your career by prioritizing conferences over development.
To be fair, not every conference is a waste of time and not every certification has value. Also, the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. You can easily find conferences specifically designed to provide certification to attendees. The problem is that far too much of our professional time is spent #networking and listening passively to the high priced keynote speaker. We spent two days in a plush hotel smiling at new people and deciding it was a good conference because the sessions were informative and the tote bag will be useful later. Your college days brought you piles of free T-shirts. You've matured and now collect tote bags and mugs.
For less money (and often no travel) you can gain a new skill, update your resume, contribute to your organization, and take it with you when you leave. Instead of your resume reading, "Conference" with a long list (I'm still not sure why people do this), you would learn new skills, ask for a raise, take on new projects, improve your current work - but you will have to continue using the same coffee mug. It just seems like a much better use of your resources to explore #myersbriggs, #sixsigma, or #emotionalintelligence.
The next time your colleagues ask if you are attending the regional conference in the Grand Location in the Five Star Grand Hotel, remind yourself that #Harvard has professional certifications in #accounting, #marketing, and #nonprofit management.
Now think of your resume and career. Now think of your tote bag.
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