Seminars are designed to give you tons of usable content on a variety of topics. The other purpose of a seminar is to get you introduced to several experts in a short amount of time.

When you hear someone you like who is able to speak to “you” and your situation, it is only natural that you would want more from that person. You wish you could just sit side-by-side with that person and suck them dry of their knowledge and experience for the rest of the week! You want more than their measly speaking slot allowed for, right?

Hence the offer or the dreaded “sales pitch.”

Ask anyone why they don’t like going to seminars and their reply will always be the same, “I hate getting those looooong sales pitches.”

And it’s true. No one likes to get a sales pitch. But, we don’t want to be left hanging either, do we?

Think about it. If a speaker just spewed an hour or 90-minutes of straight content and then said, “Well, good luck with that. Hope I got it all out and hope you took good notes,” what would you think? You would leave frustrated and probably pretty ripped off.

A good seminar speaker will always give you tons of content you can use but yet provide a way for you to get even more.

So, expect it. Live with it! And, even get to the point where you appreciate the typical seminar format (sales pitch and all) and you will be able to see the many more benefits of attending seminars and conferences.

In case you’ve been steering clear of seminars for a while purely because you don’t want to get “sold” on something, let this be a refresher by offering 101 reasons why you should attend seminars:

1. Learn new information from the presenters
2. Meet new people and share experiences
3. Brainstorm your ideas and get immediate feedback
4. Get new product or service ideas by hearing about needs in your industry
5. Get spin off ideas from others, meaning, you might tell someone you main idea and then they’ll suggest you create something slightly different
6. Evaluate the latest tools and technology to help grow your business
7. Hear the same information you might know already but from a different angle from a different speaker so that you have an even better understanding of the topic
8. Find investors in your business
9. Allow time for creativity by getting away from your daily routine and working “on” your business instead of “in” your business
10. Get inspiration from success stories shared by speakers and others you meet
11. Buy products at the best possible price that can save you time and money and are not sold in stores
12. Surround yourself with like-minded people for engaging conversation and meeting new friends who understand you lingo
13. Connect with joint venture hosts to potentially promote your product to thousands of people
14. Practice your in-person networking skills
15. Expand your social networking followers by inviting them to connect with you online
16. Observe how the heavy-hitters in your industry use use their time at the events
17. Get answers to your business questions and challenges
18. Get presentation materials to take home with you for later study
19. Learn of free resources you can try later
20. Chance to win something if there’s a contest (I won a laptop last year!)
21. Learn facts and statistics that will help you better undertand your market and industry
22. Get content to use in your own presentations, without plagiarizing of course
23. It’s a tax write-off
24. Increase your email list by getting other peoples’ business cards and contacting them later to have THEM sign-up to be on your list
25. Get away from your normal work environment for a few days
26. Keep up with your competition by learning the latest strategies in your market
27. Get one-on-one guidance from speakers
28. Discover there’s more to know even if you think you knew it all
29. Pride: when you find out how much you really do know, you will gain a sense of pride in yourself and you will start answering other peoples’ questions
30. Get business because there are probably people in the audience who need your help
31. Hear stories of what to avoid
32. Connect with people on your list that you’ve never met in person
33. Evaluate how events are run
34. After hours networking
35. Making yourself visible
36. Learn new procedures
37. Make a product from your notes
38. Record interviews with experts and make a product for sale
39. Have someone interview you for a potential product for sale
40. Get video testimonials while you’re there
41. Get pictures with industry experts
42. Determine who you don’t like
43. Settle your fears
44. Verify a hunch you have about a topic or issue impacting your industry by hearing the views of experts
45. Update your understanding of an older process that has new steps
46. Troubleshoot a problem you have that can only be solved by others who would attend a similar seminar
47. Treat yourself to a relaxing pool or massage after the seminar sessions are over
48. Transform your mood from being at a plateau to one of new possibilities
49. Teach others what you know about your topic as a break-out presenter or just as part of the audience helping those around you
50. Systematize a process you’ve only known pieces and parts of
51. Receive large volumes of usable content within a compressed amount of time
52. Satisfy your urge to be on the cutting edge
53. Restore confidence in yourself that you are in the right industry and that your perseverance to succeed is worth while
54. Recognize areas of opportunity that your business could be taking advantage of instead of being content with stagnation
55. Realign your priorities so that your work time is better spent going forward
56. Question the knowledge of experts in a public forum
57. Purchase helpful products and services that you otherwise would not even know existed
58. Plan a new direction and kill an old one once you find out how dead your old market really is
59. Praise a mentor in person who’s virtual products, newsletters, or articles have helped you somehow
60. Demo a software product to key industry influencers to get their opinions
61. Overcome the fear of mixing and mingling with people you don’t know
62. Volunteer to help so that you get to meet the event staff on a higher level
63. Experience how some people make a lot of money in a short time
64. Model after your favorite speaker’s presentation skills
65. Acquire continuing education credit
66. Meditate after hours on the influx of information you’ve just learned
67. Locate vendors who support people in your business
68. Launch a product of your own to a targeted audience by spreading the word and passing out flyers one-by-one
69. Investigate a new law impacting your industry by seeking the opinions of experts
70. Imagine the possibilities if you were to implement even 10% of what you learned at the seminar
71. Identify key players that you need to become more acquainted with over the years
72. Find contractors for hire or even be introduced to support staff that might be looking for a job you may be providing
73. Formulate a new business venture if you run into just the right person
74. Finalize business as you can recommend to a prospect that they meet you at the seminar
75. Facilitate a dinner or be a co-sponsor for the open bar and get public recognition at the event
76. Exhibit a booth to get direct traffic from your target audience
77. Eliminate doubt by seeing a speaker live before you decide to hire them
78. Diagnose problem areas in your business because a speaker went through the same problem
79. Disprove a roadblock that’s been preventing you from meeting your goals
80. Conceptualize a new business
81. Compare your success with others you meet
82. Accelerate your skills faster than reading a book in most cases
83. Believe there is hope for success
84. See a culture in another city or country
85. Assemble a group of people you’ve been talking to by phone or email to conduct a coordinated book or product launch
86. Calculate your operating budget for the upcoming year based on the new strategies you’ve learned
87. Confront someone who has been badmouthing you in the social networks and resolve the complaint (peacefully)
88. Build traffic to your website by passing out your business cards and giving people a reason to contact you
89. Critique the work, ideas, websites of others because it’s not all about you
90. Earn money by making a sale to someone who needs what you offer
91. Make money by promoting an affiliate product to someone when the opportunity comes up in conversation
92. Extract the true secrets of trends or processes from industry experts when you talk to them one-on-one
93. Generate interest and intrigue about a new product you offer or are coming out with soon
94. Observe audience reaction to the topics presented so you can see what your market is really interested in
95. Separate yourself from family so that you can focus on business
96. Test headlines, book titles, product names to get peoples’ reactions and suggestions
97. Implement a new technique you’ve learned after the seminar session and ask questions about it the next day
98. Reconnect with old friends you made at previous seminars
99. Solidify the bond between you and your clients as you invite them to attend the event together
100. Recruit speakers to present at your own seminar, conference, tele-seminar or webinar
101. Because it’s fun

To get to or remain at the top of your game, you should plan on attending 4 seminars or conferences each year. Minimum 2. More than 10 and I would say you’re probably overdoing it, unless of course, your main business is getting connected with conference speakers or joint venture partners.

Carefully evaluate how your business fits in with seminar attendance and then start looking for the conferences to attend. I’m alerted every time a seminar, conference, workshop, tele-seminar or webinar is announced on the web thanks to Google Alerts. You should do the same so that you can pick wisely.

And, if you happen to see a guy running around in a black shirt with a HereNextYear logo on the shirt, be sure to say hi…because it’s me!