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Entity talks with former CEO of Juanita's Foods to learns how not to waste time at women's conferences.

“I want to focus on what we can do as individuals,” Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, tells a group of ambitious women. “What are the messages we need to tell ourselves? What are the messages we tell the women that work with and for us? What are the messages we tell our daughters?”

From business classes to leadership talks to religious getaways, hundreds of conferences are available to women. But regardless of the subject and venue, most women’s conferences push attendees to question “How can I improve my life?” or “Where can I grow?” Throughout the conference, women are bombarded by a series of instructional talks bundled into one day or a whole weekend.

But are women wasting their time sitting in the crowd?

“I think women’s conferences are a good way of networking, getting a day of inspiration [and] motivation and [having] a day away from the office,” says Georgina Harpur, former CEO of Juanita’s Foods, a food manufacturing company in California. “Unfortunately, the days after a conference are often spent catching up and I’ve found it hard to follow through on many of the ideas offered.”

Harpur has spoken at and attended numerous conferences during her time as CEO and as the president of a trade organization in the food manufacturing industry. Although she feels that conferences have the potential to be very useful, whether or not someone “wastes” his or her time depends on the individual.

When you spend a day immersing yourself in ideas and advice but don’t do anything to implement it in your life, it can seem like you wasted eight (or more) hours of your life. So what can you do to avoid wasting your day?

1 Prioritize your goals and do research.

As inspiring as it may be to listen to lectures about how to be a successful businesswoman, consider whether or not the lessons offered align with your personal goals. Do you need to learn how to find investors or are you looking to improve your leadership skills?

Harpur says, “If I’m going to spend the time at a conference, I pretty much already know what I’m trying to achieve by going there. There’s either a particular topic or there’s a speaker that I want to hear.”

Many of the conferences offered have websites that correspond with the event. From the website, you can register for various events, depending on your availability, interests and goals.

Harpur says, “There are so many conferences out there that you really have to figure out which ones are the legitimate ones. And for most of them, you should be able to find history about how they’ve done. Start researching that way.” Some well-known conferences to get you started include Ted Women, Inc. Women’s Summit and Women in the World Summit.

However, if you’re new to women’s conferences, Harpur advises you stick to smaller venues. “Sometimes the smaller the conference, the more approachable and focused they are. It’s great to go to some of the big ones, but I think the take-home value on smaller ones might be of better use.”

2 Do what you can to implement those goals.

You’ve just come back for a day or a weekend enveloped in empowerment, business strategies and contact information. You have pages of notes, but how do you filter through it all?

“I find that one day is so hard. You get inundated with information. It’s really up to the participant to set the goals up front and then to create a way in your schedule to follow through,” Harpur advises. “In my opinion, you have to try and come up with maybe the top three things that you’re trying to accomplish.”

For example, if your main goal was to learn how to get investors, pick the top three activities you need to start doing immediately. Perhaps you need to start by crowdfunding, networking and researching grants. Regardless of what the three goals are, Harpur says that she tries to put those goals into her calendar after the conference. “I commit my next 30 days to either implementing the top three things I learned so that I develop the right habits,” she says.

You can also share the new information with your colleagues or friends. If you went to an inspirational conference that taught you to start the day with gratitude exercises, practice those exercises with your friends. Doing this is “another way of making it accountable to yourself and getting into the habit of finding the most valuable items from the amount of information that you received,” says the former CEO.

And if your goal is to build a strong network, Harpur also suggests making a connection before and after the speech to start building a relationship with the speaker. Then, once you’ve left the event, continue to work at that relationship. According to her, “Those speakers talk to so many people and there are very few that actually follow through.”

3 Find a group that will keep you accountable year-round.

What do you do if you have industry questions that require professional advice months after the conference? Fortunately, you don’t need to wait for one-time conferences to keep you productive, motivated and encouraged.

For Georgina Harpur, being an active member of an online women’s group and having that “frequency of connection” works. “With all the technology around, that has been so much more valuable to me than a one-day event,” she says. “I feel that the yearlong group is more fulfilling because I think we all need accountability, motivation and a continuous stream of new information and new ideas.”

Sometimes you may have new ideas, problems or concerns after the event. Thus, having constant access to reliable resources and trusted people is valuable. For Georgina Harpur and her personal needs, one-time talks are good for the occasional burst of motivation and inspiration. Yearlong connections, however, help with constant growth and advice.

In fact, she prefers women’s groups because of the way they provide regular support as opposed to one-time help. This kind of support not only inspires people throughout the year, it can also play a direct role in helping women advance in their organizations.

Harpur says, “When I was the president, one of my main goals was to try to lift women up. I wanted to create an environment that was empowering because we were in a very male-dominated field – manufacturing Hispanic foods – and so that was absolutely critical in the workforce and in life in general.”

So, are women’s conferences worthwhile? It depends.

“Conferences will always be available to us,” Harpur says. “I just think it would be better to teach women how to get the most out of it.”

Edited by Ellena Kilgallon
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