Attending Conference: The Best Way To Improve Your Craft

I’ve been to a lot of conference and conventions through the decades and attending them is a lot. A lot. Everything from a few hours to an entire week. Different places. Different topics. Lots of conferences…

Some of them have been better than others, but I’ve managed to get little chunks of knowledge and information from every single one I have attended. At times, it was hard to find even the smallest things to recommend a conference, but there is value there every time.

It’s not easy going to conferences and conventions. From the funding to the traveling to leaving substitute plans while you are gone, it is not an easy thing to do for a teacher during the school year. During the summer, well, those are different stressors, as you consider taking a weekend or even a week away from your precious family and your very precious time off.

But…there is absolutely no better way to improve your craft than conferences. Let’s talk about the incredible value, and some suggestions for making it work in your situation.

General Professional Development

As Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers, we have a variety of organizations that we can belong to that have professional development opportunities and a conference you can be attending almost monthly. 

• One of the largest is ACTE, the Association for Career and Technical Educators. A wonderful organization, ACTE, and its specific state offspring, gives you a fantastic opportunity to learn and network with professionals in your area and around the country. With robust membership options and extras, this is a great organization for you to become familiar with. 
• Another awesome, huge organization you should familiarize yourself with is the NEA—the National Education Association. Being active in this organization will give you a plethora of materials and a huge member network that you can tap into for suggestions and assistance as needed.

Specific To Business And CTSO’s

The organizations above are fantastic, with large networks and many opportunities for you to learn from educators across the country. With professional development of all types, they are particularly useful for early educators to gain a wider perspective on their craft.

But we are Business Education teachers. We need core specific, focused professional development surrounding the advances in, and methods to teach, business subjects.

• The National Business Education Association is the parent organization for business educators across the country. With separate and specific offshoots of the organization in each state, this will give you the opportunity to learn globally through their wealth of information, and also work locally with your state organization at a more grassroots level. Having been an officer for our state NBEA, I can tell you that getting involved at this level was extremely helpful for my craft within the confines of my state and district requirements.  
• MBA Research is a fantastic organization that focuses entirely on business management, ethics in business and finance. I’m very fortunate that my school has adopted the curriculum promoted by this organization, and we are an official High School of Business location. Their annual convention, called Conclave, is an incredible source of information about various topics in business education. It’s a small, but extremely mighty, convention that I highly recommend.
• CTSO National Conferences are a wonderful resource for teachers in our subject matter. Not only are you making the opportunities available to students, but each of these national conferences always includes opportunities for networking and learning for educators. Make sure you take the time for your own education while you are at these competitive events, and attend some of the sessions specific to advisers and educators. 

Getting The Most Out Of Attending Conference

I’ve watched people waste the opportunities available at conferences for years. It is very easy to just use the convention time as a “vacation”, particularly if you are visiting an interesting city, or you’re just plain bone weary from a long week at school. Don’t give in to those impulses! Get out there and try my tips!

1. Stay at the conference site – I was at a convention in another city recently, where one of my co-workers chose to stay with their adult child in the suburbs. I don’t blame them at all, but it absolutely compromises your convention experience. Not only were they late one morning due to traffic, but they missed out on the networking opportunities in the evening because they left to get back to their kid’s house. 
2. Bring NO work – I found myself in a session once, struggling to write an email in response to a parent. When I looked up, I realized I had missed some of the very interesting session I had been looking forward to. While I understand the desire to knock out some work at the airport, or in the evenings when you return to your room, please refrain from doing any work during the “work hours” of the convention itself. It’s important that we embrace the role of being a student while at these events, and not divide our energy with work.
3. Step out of your comfort zone – Following the same thread, be ready to step fully into the role of being a student when you enter your convention. Many of the sessions that you will attend will have interactive pieces to them, to demonstrate completely the ideas the session leaders are trying to impart. Be ready to get up and get active in these sessions. Only by feeling the experience from the students’ side will you truly be able to implement the ideas into your own classes. 
4. Attend the networking events – At a recent convention, one of my colleagues joked that we weren’t networking at all, and just sitting with our district colleagues. He was right. But so were we. We don’t have a lot of opportunities to see each other in our large district, and we had fun at meals. However, I made a point of going to all sessions alone, sitting with other educators and sharing resources. I felt like it was a good compromise, so I suggest you pay attention to who you are spending time with, as well. 
5. Hit the Expo Hall – From just a few tables to an entire convention center, I’ve walked through many exposition halls in my time. It’s always worth it. Yeah, I definitely reload my supply of pens and notepads when I visit the tables, but it’s definitely more than that. Not only have I had the chance to speak with authors whose books I have enjoyed, but I’ve also found fundraising and community service events that my students groups could have advantage of completing. I budget at least two different times to visit the expo hall, since sometimes you won’t get to a table you were looking for, or they may have been away when you visited. Use some downtime in your day to devote to this important piece of any convention. 

The Importance Of Networking At Conference

I freely admit that I tend to gravitate to people I know when I attend conferences. Not only do I get to see people who work in other schools, but I can connect with people and companies in other states that I have worked with in the past.

I’ve got to branch out more. So do you.

Whether it is sharing a table at lunch, or asking someone who has already completed the fundraising you’re considering, find ways to start conversations with other people from the convention. You might gain some insight into a different way to teach a difficult topic in Accounting, or make a great friend who can help your kids succeed at a national competition. This is the time to step out of your comfort zone and meet some new education professionals.

The Best Conferences I’ve Attended

So, you’re wondering what I recommend with your limited time, limited funds and limited patience for useless sessions. Here’s what I can suggest to anyone—new or veteran teacher and adviser.

1. Attend a national conference for a CTSO—even if you aren’t an adviser. Not only will you find incredible sessions to attend, but you will be brought into the wonderful world of CTSOs, propelling you to become an adviser in the future. These conventions are targeted very specifically to what we teach, and you will meet some incredible educators at nationals.
2. MBA Research Conclave is the single best conference I attend every year for business and finance education. The sessions—taught by other teachers and industry professionals—are engaging and very informative. They have industry professionals as the speakers at all general sessions, and they focus on the area of the country where they are holding the conference. 

How To Afford Registration Fees When Attending Conference

I’ve got very little to say about this. Here is my position, after being in the game for decades:

If your administration won’t support your attendance at relevant conferences, it’s time to find somewhere else to work. 

I’m not saying you should be financed for multiple conferences per year, but there absolutely needs to be support for your ongoing learning in support of your students and CTSOs. If that is lacking where you are, it’s time to make some hard decisions.

Make The Time

They won’t pay for you to go if you won’t go. You need to be attending conferences to attend a conference.

Your ongoing learning and professional development needs to be a priority to you if you are going to convince anyone to support and finance you. The recent MBA Conclave went from Friday to Monday in another city. This required the following: Four days of school, four days of conference and flights, followed by four more days of school before I had a day off. It was definitely brutal on the body. 

But it was so worth it.

You know how to make time for important things. Make this an important thing to you and it will happen.

Don’t forget your personal business cards. 

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR!!!

Wow, thank you for reading about attending conference!

Hey, since you’re here! You may as well check out classroom management, here, and learn about DEI in CTSOs, here! Check out our other topics here! Either way, I appreciate you!

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