Part of keeping abreast with what's going on at the intersection of your organization and connective technologies can be conference-hopping. I see conferences as a necessary, enjoyable evil that are often like magazines in that they feature 40% topical, tangental content and 60% advertising (but unlike magazines, the advertisers/sponsors at a conference often get you drunk). While a conference is often a nice place to hang out and hook up with like-minded folks, all of the "we're so cutting edge" self-congradulation can get a little daunting and stale after a few days. And while it's nice to come away with a pocket full of business cards of potential co-collaborators, I always feel a little fat after a carb-heavy diet of conference fare and free beer. It's a yin and yang sort of thing, I suppose.

While I wrote a do's and don'ts conference behavior post earlier in the year, the list is really on-going. Perhaps I'll write a snarky book on the topic at some point in the future. Since there are still a few related conferences left for 2008, I offer the following five suggestions for a happy experience:

• If you're prowling a conference for money (i.e. looking for backing from a foundation or a donation of some sort from a corporate representative), be sure to be clear and casual as possible. While it seems so obvious, I have seen folks who have spent hours assembling the perfect elevator pitch turn into jelly on the spot and spew out something like, "Well, we're this group that offer, uh, offers a service to these people who, on the occasion will, uh..." Worse than this painful trail-off-to-nowhere debacle is when the pitcher isn't aware that they've killed the horse and they keep on kicking despite all of the resistance on the part of the potential giver. Be aware of yourself, friends. If you must approach someone, get all of that Chief-Brody-attacks-the-shark-with-full-force imagery out of your skull. Take a breath, be cool, and think more along the lines of Humphrey Bogart casually approaching Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.
• Which is to say: Be cool. While at NetSquared's Mashup Challenge last May (I was then unaffiliated with N2), I watched the three dudes from KnowMore casually be themselves, deliver strong presentations, and evangelize by handing cards out to let people know what time their presentations were being held. Not once did I see one of their representatives get heavy-handed or gratuitous. At the same time, I saw other folks shove their cards into people's hand before introducing themselves, fast-talking through a sentence like the early-90s Micro Machines spokesperson, and schmoozing to a slimy degree. I still see these folks around at conferences, forcing themselves into every conversation they are able to and offending by trying to hog any potential spotlight. It sounds like a Full House Danny Tanner cliche, but be yourself. Corporate and foundation folks are just like us, and in my experience, they respond to phoniness in the very same way we do.
• This is another obvious one that I see get broken all of the time: Don't get too drunk in the wrong places. I know, I know - the 5:30 mixer is sponsored by so and so and the drinks are unlimited until 8 and you're so thirsty and/or nervous and/or socially awkward. But don't drink that white wine like it's a refreshing sports drink, because as you slur your words and tell inappropriate stories about the last conference you got too drunk at, you're tarnishing your image. To amend the last piece of advice, be yourself as long as you're not someone who gets inappropriate inebriated in public. It's at the more-private after-parties are where the fun should be had (however, remember mobile-picture-uploads can instantly send an image of your drunken fun to the rest of the world in an instant - See picture above).
• Bring a snack. For real. Bring snacks diverse in their vitamin and nutrient offerings to munch on. For all the money you or your organization pays for you to attend, most conferences have terrible food selection. Mixed with all of the schmoozing, boozing, and fatty carbs, you can find yourself pretty low on energy without some sort of backup ingestion plan.
• As my great friend Nathaniel Whittemore says, " It's worth having serious conversations with serious people for about a million reasons, but even if you've got your sites on someone particular, good connections are better in the long run than loose ones." Good connections happen not only by knowing how to network, but also by not being boring. Know something. Research the people who'll be there, and know a thing or two about the topics being discussed. A problem with conferences is that they can be a really fertile place for topical conversation, but most people come in search of answers for their particular niche questions. This is totally understandable and understandably utilitarian, but these people are also pretty boring to talk to if their number one topic is them. If you haven't done so in a while, read a book or two or buy some new music or go to a play or a museum or do whatever you do to absorb culture, current events, or new ideas. Be an interesting person. At many conferences, there are a lot of uninteresting people desperately in search of the largest net-gain of connections and with all of the interesting people who are there, I (and I know I am not the only one) avoid talking with them at all costs.