Qrious at Codepalousa 2012, March 15th - 17th

Have you heard about Codepalousa? It’s a two day software development conference consisting of ten tracks and sixty-two (62!) sessions - well worth your time, attention and the reasonable fee to attend, and it all takes place in Louisville Kentucky, March 15th through the 17th.

If you attend Codepalousa you’ll be a part of one of the few events outside of the New York City metro area to use Qrious during our private beta.

If you’re not attending, well, consider yourself un-lucky. But you can make your own luck.

Visit http://codepalousa.com to register now while spots are still available.

In the meantime…

  • Visit http://qrio.us on your iPhone or Android smartphone web browser, connect your existing social networks to Qrious and tweak your profile in preparation for the event.
  • When you arrive, don’t forget to check-in with Qrious. You’ll be glad you did. We guarantee it! Just look at how excited some of our NYC users are.

Oh - and don’t forget to tell your friends - especially if your friends organize meetups, conferences or others professional events.

Use Qrious at the Small Business Summit in NYC, March 6th

Now in its seventh year, the 2012 Small Business Summit will be held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City on March 6th.

If When you attend this year’s event, you’ll be able to meet more of the people that are important to you using Qrious smartphone networking software!

Yes, you read that correctly: the organizers of the Small Business Summit have selected Qrious to ensure that attendees have the best networking experience possible.

Here’s what you should do:

  1. Go to SmallBizTechSummit.com and click on the big ol’ red Register Now button in the top right corner.
  2. Launch the browser on your iPhone or Android smartphone (newer touchscreen BlackBerries will also work) and go to http://qrio.us to create your networking profile.
  3. When you arrive at the event on March 6th, be sure to launch the Qrious web app and check-in. Qrious will immediately tell you who you should meet and why based on the information contained in your profile.
  4. Have the best networking event ever.

Questions? Comments? Compliments? Gripes? Bugs?

Don’t hesitate to contact us.

Conference Attendance is Work

Awesome. You’ve just scored a budget to attend the biggest and best conference that your industry has to offer. You’ve planned your attendance to listen to some of the brightest minds in your field, participate in workshops and even attend a few cocktail receptions while you’re there.

But are you working it?

No, I mean really working it. Have you scheduled time to walk the exhibit hall floor and check out some of the new tools and technologies being offered to people like you and organizations like yours?

Have you checked the attendee list to see if there’s anyone you should connect - or reconnect - with?

Are you considering a career move? If so, have you thought about where you’d like to go next? Will anyone from that company be at the conference?

Too often, professionals attend conferences as if it were a big party - or at the very least, a few days away from the office.

If you’re doing it right, you’ll have a full calendar while you’re there.

I’m not saying you should neglect healthy meals or sleep or even a trip to the hotel fitness center. But, you should take advantage of the concentration of people and intensive togetherness that a major conference provides before you head back to the office.

You’ll thank yourself for it later.

Tips: Making the most of your conference attendance

Over on TechCrunch, Mark Suster (@msuster), an entrepreneur with two successful exits and now a VC at GRP Partners, has written a thoughtful post on how startups can make the most of any conferences or events that they attend.

I would say that these are good rules for anyone to follow - not just startups. In summary, they are:

  1. Be very targeted in which events you attend
  2. Do leg work before you get to the event
  3. If you sit on a panel, make sure you don’t suck
  4. Focus more on Lobby Conf than on the panels
  5. Consider staying out late, sleeping in
  6. Schedule dinners
  7. Don’t get too wasted 
  8. Don’t assume everybody remembers you
  9. Get a wing man
  10. Close the loop after the show

You’ll have to read Mark’s entire post but there are two points I might adjust, depending on your style and the style of the people you meet.

#6: Instead of scheduling dinners, consider scheduling breakfasts. As much as conferences can have a party atmosphere, you’ll find that some people are early risers who like to get in a workout and have some productive time in the morning.

If some of the folks that you’re looking to make a connection with fall into this category, get in sync with them at your conference.

Also, consider that many times people are just plain tired after a long day of schmoozing and may not have any gas left in the evening. Get ‘em while they’re fresh.

#5: If you’re attempting to make connections over breakfast, consider “early to bed, early to rise” in order to support that strategy. It’s kind of hard to have a breakfast with an early-riser at 7 when you turned-in tipsy at 5.

[Mark Suster on TechCrunch]