With the NEST Client Conference and Gala Awards Dinner (2016) steadily approaching, we have been busy booking guest speakers, planning activities and organising what will happen on the day. From my perspective, there is an awful lot going into the event, which has got me thinking… With all that goes into these events, what can you as a martial arts business owner actually take away with you?
Value
The main goal of any conference is to make sure attendees have something of value to take away with them. This can be in the form of knowledge, new skills or information to help improve an aspect of themselves or their business. However, the usefulness of this information varies from one person to the next, as you wouldn’t consider being told something you already know as being useful or informative.
To get real value from a conference, there has to be something on offer that is of benefit to you as an individual or for your martial arts school. What use is it being told the 5 best ways to block a punch when you’re more interested in the development of your business?
This is why we find it important to offer something that you will benefit from and will help to grow and maintain your business. We understand that amongst the many differences martial arts instructors have; you all share at least one fundamental goal, to get more students. This year’s conference will not only cover how to help get you more students but also how to keep students with some simple techniques and changes anyone can use.
Gain
If the goal of the conference organisers is to provide something of value for you to take away, then by the same logic your goal as an attendee is to try and take away something of value, and I don’t mean the pens they handout! What I mean is something you are interested in learning more about, for example, business advice or ideas on how to make improvements to your current business and it’s way of working.
If something of interest or benefit isn’t being offered, you probably wouldn’t be attending in the first place anyway. It is worth weighing up the long-term benefits that some of the workshops could offer, such as learning about opening a new school or franchising your business, this could be something you aren’t necessarily interested in right now, but would benefit from learning more about in the long run.
Ultimately one of the biggest benefits you have at a conference is the ability to network with like-minded people. These people can be at various stages of their own business development, but share a similar end goal to yourself. From my experiences, it is really interesting to see how different people have approached a similar problem to myself, how they overcame it and how the end result turned out.
With the NEST Client Conference, we want to make sure there would be plenty of opportunities to network with one another. This is why we have included breakout sessions, breaks throughout the day and even a networking breakfast, to create ample opportunity for you to speak with each other. Remember, everyone there is like minded, so exchanging tips and knowledge with each other could help improve aspects of your business and give you some great ideas.
Action
So hopefully you have taken some valuable information and some useful tips away with you, but what do you do next? A good starting point is putting those ideas into action, turning any useful tips, tricks and information you have learned into actionable steps. If you did some networking, make a point to continue that link and contact the person to help promote a strong working relationship.
To help get you started with this, we will be providing useful handouts at the NEST Client Conference as a way of having notes from the day. We will also be offering our help and advice, both at the conference and afterwards, so if a question comes to mind a few days later, you can email or give us a call (0115 945 5030) where we will be happy to help.
Recognition
With all the hard work that you put into your business, it’s nice to have a little bit of recognition. This is why for last year’s NEST Client Conference, we launched our Gala Awards Dinner as a way of highlighting martial arts business owners achievements. This year is no different!
Along with our ‘nominated awards’, we will also be awarding clients who have made notable improvements to their business over the past year. This is a great way to give recognition for those who are doing so well, and with so many of you doing so well, it’s making it a real tough year to choose!
