Now that Microsoft Ignite is over, you may be wondering what do I do next. To help you, I’ve put together a list of things to do post-conference as you return home and to your work.
Recharge your Batteries
It was a long week filled with networking, learning, and sharing. Make sure you take some time to re-charge and re-connect with friends & family. Many of us are back at work the next, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take some time for ourselves. Do something fun for yourself and your loved ones. It will do you AND your employer a lot of good.
Review Sessions
Unless you are superhuman, you didn’t make it to all of the sessions you wanted to. That’s what’s great about the sessions being available for streaming; you can watch them later. Now is the time for a plan to review all of those sessions. You should set aside 2-4 hrs each week to knock out remaining videos, or ones you want to watch over. Make sure to use your learning goals as a guide in determining what to watch first. You can view all the sessions here as well as through your Tech Community account.
Build a New Plan
My guess is you learned about some new things, and you want to know more about those topics. So now is a good time for making a list of those, and set about a plan to learn more about them. I recommend you pick three things you were excited about learning. Commit to 2-5 hrs a week on the first item. Then Rinse & Repeat as you go through each topic. I recommend resources such as the online session videos from Microsoft Ignite, documentation at docs.microsoft.com, and learning modules at learn.microsoft.com.
Complete The Survey
Just like our products, Microsoft Ignite is built to meet our customer’s needs, so your feedback is critical towards making future events better. Take the time to complete your survey, and provide meaningful feedback. Simple saying ‘X was bad’ doesn’t help us help you. Providing detailed and actionable feedback goes a long way. Many long-time attendees told me last week how impressed they were that feedback from previous events was used to make this year’s event better so please take the time to complete the Survey. As an added bonus, Microsoft will donate $2 for each completed surveys to Girls Who Code.
Share with the Masses
Chances are you need to report back to your employer what you learn. An easy way is through a trip report detailing the sessions you attended, people you met, and questions you had answered. A step beyond is to hold Lunch N Learns where you share your learnings with co-workers. It’s as simple as getting a conference room (though that may be a difficult task) and inviting people to bring their lunches w/ them as you show them all the cool things you learned. Because sharing what you know is important, and it helps you grow.
Hot Tip: You can download a copy of your Microsoft Ignite schedule by clicking the Trip Report tab in your schedule. This will include all sessions in your schedule as well as any meetings you scheduled.
Re-Connect with People
Take some time over the next few weeks to reconnect with the people you met at #MSIgnite. Those connections are so important and help you build out your professional network. Just remember some people take time off after big events like this so don’t expect a reply immediately. Wait a week and connect.
Hopefully, these help you put your week at Microsoft Ignite to work for you. Let me know what you think via @MichaelBender on twitter or the comments section below.