Growing in your career is not the easiest of tasks. Growth doesn’t happen by itself, it implies constant effort and as a matter of fact – if you don’t push it, you’ll risk becoming stale in your career.
In order to stay on top of your game, you need to learn from others, update yourself on the newest topics, network correctly and treat your career as a long-term chess game. Data Science conferences allow you to do this in one place, and contraty to popular belief – they aren’t such a huge investment as you’d initially think.
But… they are investments. Don’t get us wrong, life is about investing, but the trick is finding in what to invest in and getting the best return you possibly can.
Simply put: events are great investments, with wonderful ROI – only if you can pinpoint which one is the best to go to. But do you know how to convince your boss to pay for your just right event?
In a short sentence: Focus on value and steer away from cost.
Bosses tend to focus on numbers and the bottom line – it’s their job ultimately – so you will have to put things in perspective to his interests to be sponsored by your company.
How? Focus on what you can bring to the company – how you will impact the day to day and future activities and be honest why you think this is an important conference to attend to.
People can tell when you are faking interest, or you want to get a couple of extra vacation days, but if you are sincere to what you can get out of, they will hear you out. But, you definitely need to plan everything related to the conference in order to pitch your proposal right.
Here are 3 steps that we recommend for you to take to attend any given conference that you desire:
- Step #1: Plan and draft
- Step #2: Keep track of the money
- Step #3: Package and pitch
- Let’s get into them right away:
Step #1: Plan and Draft
There is one big question you should keep in mind: why do you want out of the event? – why is it special to you? both personally and professionally?
Not all events are created equal, some of them will have a technical focus, others a career focus, others something in the middle.
This is why doing a quick research on the event, and knowing its in’s and out’s is so important – you’ll be able to make a stronger point for yourself.
On top of the most common benefits for events, these are a couple of tips you can include in your research:
- Personalize & Prioritize your Learnings
- Networking, Networking, Networking
- Unique makes it Important
We’ll go over these tips using DataScienceGO 2018, our career-focused event for Data Scientists as an example.
– Personalize & Prioritize your Learnings
Firstly, DSGO covers topics at all the “levels” we want.
If our newbies need some guidance, the talks aimed at “Aspirants” will show the way. For our established Data Scientists, the “Practitioner” sessions will be most valuable. And for you and other managers, you’ll get the full story on data-driven leadership and culture in the “Head Honcho” talks.
Secondly, we’ll go through the program (available here) and prioritize what we’ll get the most benefit from. A little for you, a little for us Data Scientists, and maybe 1 or 2 things that will help our new starters. Then, you let me do the rest!
– Networking, Networking, Networking
Now, here’s where things can get interesting, you say, leaning forward enthusiastically.
Grabbing a bagful of learnings from DSGO will be great. But we might even get more than we’ve bargained.
I’m bound to meet some fascinating people. What if those connections turned out to be people who could help our team? It could be expert consulting, specialized training in a niche we need to build in-house expertise with, cultural guidance or almost anything else. The possibilities are endless…
– Unique makes it important
What makes the event you want to go to special? Why are the lessons you’ll learn important and unattainable in any other way?
Basically, you have to be able to explain why you have to go to the conference you are planning to. For instance, DataScienceGO is a career-focused Data Science event. Normally, you’d find tons of events with technical speakers, updates on the latest news and much more. But, DSGO focuses mainly on the lessons from successful data scientists and what they did correctly to take their career to the very next level.
Hard and true experience is tough to find anywhere else, this makes DSGO special and important to attend to.
Step #2: Keep Track of The Money
This conference won’t be for free – let’s get that out of the way.
As we put it before, what you need is your value to out-perform the cost of attending. You need to be clear that what you will get out of the conference will be far superior to its cost.
But, since your boss is probably a numbers guy, you need to keep in mind how to keep the numbers low, here are a couple of tips to consider using DSGO 2018 as an example:
- Look out for Details
- Technology FTW
- Split it to win it
Keeping track of the money will demonstrate that you have all things covered but will also show how considerate you can be with the expenses that come along with any given event.
On top of that, these are a couple of tips you can have in mind:
– Look out for Details
For most conferences, the ticket is the biggest expense. Data Science conferences can cost anywhere from $1,000 USD up to $1,500.
But a DSGO conference pass is a comparatively paltry $400. Put it like this: we get 100% of the learning for just 40% of the average cost!
– Technology FTW!
It’s the 21st-century. Technology’s making it easier and easier to find cheaper airfares and accommodation.
This means that booking some low-cost airfares now (instead of at the last minute) could help save some dollars. Plus, there are plenty of low-budget AirBNB or Homestay options if the hotel is too expensive.
You can even pitch staying with another employee or attendee of the event – there are tons of facebook groups where you can get a hold of other attendees even before the event occurs.
– Split it to Win It
The company will reap big benefits for sending you to DSGO, but you will also learn tons of important information that will help you in your data science career. So, since the benefits are split, you could propose to share the costs as well.
Propose to use a day or two vacation days for the conference. Or, if the total cost is a little high for the budget, split the bill.
Whichever is your bosses response, he will be appreciative of you keeping the company’s interests in mind.
Step #3: Package and Pitch
If you’re in business you know that wrapping up your speech is as important as whatever you are pitching. This means finishing strong in your arguments to convince your boss and really show that this event is really worth it.
Some final arguments might include aspects of exclusivity, self-improvement and even compromise.
- Unique Lessons
- Your Happiness
- Look at the Calendar
Here are our tips for the final push in your proposal, using DSGO once again.
Unique Lessons
DataScienceGO isn’t the place to just learn about technical content. Sure, that’s a part of the conference, but it’s not the main focus.
Why? Well, there’s a lot of hard-to-find-on-the-internet discussions and topics at the conference that are just as useful, if not more.
- How the industry is really transforming (beyond those vague 500 word “What Data Science is Going to Do in 2019” articles)
- Problem-solving approaches and methods that won’t just help us in the Data Science and Analytics teams, but can be picked up by anyone in the office
- Discussions around boosting the careers and culture of Data Science teams (as much a benefit to our team as it is myself)
- The intersection between Data Science and Business, and how to get better insights and deliver more value with what we do
And that’s just the start.
The material inside the conference isn’t easily found elsewhere. They’re insights, knowledge and skills most other Data Scientists around the world don’t have, and they give you, me, the entire team… even the entire company, a huge benefit.
So, what are we waiting for?
Inner Happiness
There’s a strong opinion that happier employees are more productive, and the research backs that up.
Now sure, you could go with the cheaper option and ply us with candy, but there’s a way that makes you look good and benefits the whole company.
Skills development and training.
Yes, training helps improve the productivity of the team. Increases our ability to tackle tricky challenges. But if perhaps most importantly, development helps us build a “sticky” culture: one we’re all happier in, and more likely to stick around for.
That kind of culture is super-important, and this conference will help us improve it. Teams with a career focus develop skills and a culture with a unique advantage over others “just doing their job”, so let’s do what we can to build that!
– Look at the Calendar
As with expenses, conferences can be expensive in other ways – how many days the event will take up. This will affect both you and your employer – so have a good look at which days exactly the event will take place in. Sometimes, you’ll notice these events are tailored for full-time employees.
For example:
Most of DSGO takes place on a weekend, so if I fly out on a Thursday afternoon or evening, it’s just one day (the Friday) that I need off.
* * *
There you have it: exactly how* a 5-minute conversation with your manager will occur to get you to the best Data Science conference you’ll attend this year.
If you’d like a little extra gunpowder for your argument, enter the website below!