Kim Ellis loves getting out to an event, but this autumn she’s making the case for doing some of your networking from the sofa first. Here’s why Free Spirits LIVE!, and the three weeks of community wrapped around it, could help you make even more of your next big industry event.
The best part of any event isn’t the stands or the sessions. It’s the people.
And the people bit works so much better when you’ve done a little planning first.
The trouble with a big expo is that the hall is enormous. You spend the day hoping you’ll bump into the right people in a crowd of hundreds or thousands. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you only realise they were there when you’re checking LinkedIn on the train home.
That’s one of the reasons we’ve wrapped three weeks of community around Free Spirits LIVE!.
Free Spirits LIVE! takes place on 1 October. It’s a one-day virtual conference hosted on Zoom, and this year’s theme is Finding Your Voice.
We’ll be exploring how you can grow your visibility, influence and impact through thought leadership, speaking, video, articles, AI and more, without feeling like you have to turn yourself into someone you’re not.
It’s CPD accredited, it won’t be recorded, and we’ll also be donating a portion of ticket sales to St Gemma’s Hospice.
But the conference itself is only part of it.
Our Conference Village opens on 17 September and runs on Slack for three weeks, staying open right through World of Learning and closing on 8 October.
That means you don’t just turn up on 1 October, watch a load of sessions and disappear again.
You’ve got three weeks to get to know other attendees, swap ideas, continue conversations and have a say in parts of the programme. Thea Newcomb’s Canva Skills Lab, for example, will be shaped by a vote from attendees once the Village opens.
We’ll also be sharing a new resource every single day.
And while I love getting out and about, there’s something rather nice about doing all of that from home first. No travelling. No trekking up and down the country. You can sit in your comfy clothes, make a load of notes, join the conversations that interest you and start getting to know people properly.
Then, if you’re heading to World of Learning the following week, some of those online connections can become real-world ones.
Instead of walking into the NEC surrounded by strangers, there could already be people you’re looking out for. Instead of saying, “We must catch up if we bump into each other,” you can actually make a plan. And while you’re at it, why not plan to meet us?
L&D Free Spirits is exhibiting at World of Learning on 6 and 7 October on stand H90, alongside Craig Stevenson from Arck Learning.
So you can join us online at Free Spirits LIVE!, spend three weeks meeting people and carrying on the conversations in the Conference Village, then come and say hello in person at World of Learning.
Still on the fence?
And that’s before we’ve even talked about everything happening on 1 October.
Free Spirits LIVE! includes:
- 2 keynotes
- 9 conference talks
- 6 Skills Labs
- 2 discussion panels
- Several speed sessions
- A three-week Conference Village
- More than 21 resources shared across the Village
And because the event isn’t recorded, if you want to be part of it, you need to be there on the day.
