Considering a Career as a Full Time Conference Attendee

I think I am contemplating a career change as a Full Time Conference Attendee.

Today, I somehow gate crashed and ended up attending the Global CyberSecurity Summit (IMPACT) at the Shangri-La Hotel organised by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) after having mistakenly mixed up the dates of a talk by Google VP & "father of internet" Vinton Cerf at the same location.

Seems ironic that I was able to breach the physical security of the conference by attending the IMPACT event which was happening just across the hall in the hotel ballroom. Anyway, I spent the day learning a great deal about IMPACT and the world of cyber security. In true "Malaysia Boleh" spirit, Malaysia is once again taking the lead to create a global initiative to deal with cyber security and terrorism threat. At the conference were representatives from over 30 countries, telcomm ISP regulators and telco Ministers.

So it got me thinking... maybe there is a career in being a Full Time Conference Attendee.
Each day, especially in Kuala Lumpur... there are numerous conferences and seminars being held in the 4 and 5 star hotels. They range from corporate events, exhibitions, government seminars and meetings on almost every topic. Most are usually free events and they will let you into the event if you produce a business card.

Here are the benefits of attending such events :

1. Firstly, they usually have great learning... even product demos. Within any industry, spending 2-3 days in such seminars you would get to learn a lot about the company or industry or topic covered in a short period of time
2. They are usually very informative and the presenters are best in their field or industry
3. The attendees are usually executives, experts and therefore great networking opportunities
4. They serve great coffee breaks and snacks. Those that provide lunches are usually buffet spread with good service.
5. There is usually free WiFi, (if not, you can "complain" to the registration desk) therefore you can still surf the net, update your Facebook or blog if the sessions get boring.
6. Some events even have free gifts and goodies bag or reward for filling up their evaluation forms.
7. Best of all, some events like IMPACT are fully sponsored by companies or government agencies and some of the best minds are present in the conference to share their knowledge.


If you were to attend 2-3 of such seminars a week, one can really become any expert in almost any field or industry. Of course, getting through the registration desk would be your first hurdle. But most event managers attendee lists are never accurate anyway, and chances are high they will let you in if you produce a valid business card. Of course, dressing the part as the industry norm (eg shirt and tie, or jacket) would surely get you in.

So next time, instead of taking time off from work for vacation or wasting the day away, why not attend some free conference happening in town to learn. Okay, it won't be much of a career... but it will make a great learning hobby!! So at your next conference or seminar, you see one guy in the corner of the conference hall absorb with his laptop, chances are that's me... gate crashing another free conference or seminar. Happy learning!