Change things up this summer … and attend a conference or two!

If you’re like me, you enjoy meeting new people and learning new things. My thirst for knowledge was one of the reasons I decided to attend grad school, and the people I have met during my two-plus years at Georgetown have been great.

But, as a social media community manager, I know that partaking in different communities not only opens up new doors, but also exposes me to information I might not have otherwise learned.

So, my new goal this summer is to attend at least one conference or meetup a month.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to RecruitDC’s annual conference back in May. I had never been to a recruiting conference before, and was not only able to make many new — and great — connections, but I was also able to learn more about the field of recruiting itself.

This year, I was also able to attend FedTalks, FedScoop’s annual, Ted Talk-like event geared toward the federal community and contractors.

Additionally, I have also started attending some of AFFIRM’s monthly talks.

And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I will be live-blogging during GovLoop’s own NextGen conference, coming up later in July.

But conferences aren’t just about taking time away from the office … they’re about learning new things, meeting new people, and gaining new perspective on old problems. I have met several people who have different ideas about social media community management, and I’ve been able to take these lessons learned and apply them to my own work. Even though I manage an online community, I still think face-to-face interaction is important.

So, get out of your routine, if you can, and plan to attend a conference this summer. Many of them are free or give reduced rates to government employees!

What conferences are you planning to attend this summer?