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Why I Spend Money Attending Conferences

Last Updated on August 24, 2021September 27, 2018 12 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. Affiliate Disclosure.This post may contain affiliate links. Financial Panther has partnered with AwardWallet and CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Panther, AwardWallet, and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

Over the past year, I’ve spent a pretty decent chunk of change attending various conferences and meetups. As I write this, I’ll be spending the next couple of days at FinCon, the major financial blogger conference that’s held each year.

Compared to some conferences, FinCon can actually be pretty affordable. But it’s still not cheap once you add up all of the costs that come with attending a big conference – flights, hotels, food, etc. Last year, my FinCon trip cost a little over $1,700 for myself and my business partner to attend (or about $800 per person). I’ll likely spend about the same amount this year. If you add up all of the other events that I’ve attended over the year, I’ll probably end up spending about $4,000 to attend these conferences and meetups.

In a lot of ways, these conferences and meetups can seem like an oxymoron – personal finance bloggers and enthusiasts paying a bunch of money to meet up with other people and talk about all of the ways we don’t spend money. It sounds like a waste of money. 

But as I’ve continued to grow this blog and continue along this content creation path, my view on these conferences has evolved. Yes, conferences cost money. But what matters isn’t the cost. It’s the value that they bring. As long as you get more in value than what you pay, these conferences are worth it. 

These days, I understand conferences for what they are – they’re investments in yourself and your business. Even though I’ve spent some money on conferences this year, I’ve already seen returns from attending them. And if I haven’t gotten a return on my investment yet, I’m confident that I will in the future.

Reasons To Spend Money On Conferences

1. Build Your Brand. Building brand awareness is a key part of any business. You can have the best stuff in the world, but you can only help people if people know that you exist.

I think advertising is one of the things a lot of content creators just seem to forget about. There’s this idea that you’re just supposed to be found naturally – if you write it, people will just show up. I’ve learned that’s not how it works, however.

Conferences, in many ways, are basically you putting money into advertising spend. When you go to conferences, you’re representing your brand and putting your brand out into the world. If it gets your brand out there, those conference fees might be worth it for that alone.

2. Learn. It goes without saying, but you should hopefully be learning something when you go to these conferences. There’s always more learning to be done, even if you’re an expert.

I spent $87,000 to go to law school (a bargain compared to what many of my fellow attorneys spent). My wife spent much more to go to dental school and then her residency. Conferences might very well be a bargain when you think about how much education otherwise costs.

3. Meet People. The most important part of conferences might not be the learning or the brand awareness – it’s probably meeting people. You can learn a lot on your own, so if learning was the sole motivation, you could go read books and learn it all yourself as you go along.

The magic of the conference comes with meeting people. It’s a big world out there, and NO ONE can do it all alone. You need to meet people, and where else can you do it better than at a conference with tons of people looking to do the same thing.

4. People Like You More When They Meet You In Person. This builds a little bit on my previous point, but there’s something to be said about meeting people in person. The nice thing about the online world is that you can make tons of friends. But you can only put so much of yourself out there virtually. 

When people meet you in person, they’ll be able to see your enthusiasm or whatever else it is that makes you, you. And they’ll remember you far better than just talking to you in an email or through Twitter. My closest blogging friends are all people that I’ve met with in person. When opportunities come up for either of us, who do you think they’ll remember?

5. Boost Your Motivation. Building an online business is a grind. One little side benefit of attending conferences is just how much of a motivation boost you’ll get. I came back from my first FinCon absolutely pumped, and my blog grew quite a bit after that conference. I don’t think that was a coincidence. 

If you ever need a motivation boost, going to conferences is where it’s at (you can also listen to Gary Vee and let him scream at you about how lazy you are). You’re basically surrounding yourself with hundreds of people who do the same thing as you and who have the drive to spend their time and money meeting up with other people in their same space. You’re a product of who you surround yourself with, and when you surround yourself with fellow hustlers, you can’t help but want to get out there and hustle too.

Spend Money On Yourself 

There are a lot of ways to spend money. Most of us spend money in ways that can never actually pay us back. It’s spent once and then is gone forever.

A conference, though, can be an investment if done right. And the nice thing about an investment is that you can get that money back. You might spend a couple hundred bucks. But you can make that back many times over. Plus, if you’re going to invest, why not invest in something that you should believe in more than anything – yourself.

Additional Thoughts. What if your business isn’t making any income yet? If that’s the case, the solution is simple – find a way to make money somewhere else and use that money to invest back into yourself. Let’s say you need $1,000 per year to go to conferences. You just need to earn $83 per month to fully bootstrap your costs. If you can make just $20 an hour doing something, you only need to work an extra 4 to 5 hours per month to pay for your costs. It’s the easiest bootstrapping you’ll ever do. 

This post may contain affiliate links. Financial Panther has partnered with AwardWallet and CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Panther, AwardWallet, and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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financial panther

Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.

Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.

Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:

  • SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
  • 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
  • US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $900 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
  • M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
  • Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.

Feel free to send Kevin a message here.

Filed Under: Blogging, Investing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Financial Orchid says

    October 5, 2018 at 4:55 pm

    I just finished attending a tech conference and a 100% agree. To be able to see things at high level, meet ppl at C-suite level, experience the world at the macro level and watching the most cutting edge demos and of course all the amazing deals happening at the the same precise moment left and right or even casually at a lobby stairs is something you 100% won’t see in your daily grind. It’s like a breath of fresh air to renew perspectives.

    I just witnessed a $60MM all cash funding secured by a guy wearing a ratty white T-shirt on the phone up the escalators – LOL
    Before I thought it was a bunch of hocus pocus HBO Silicon Valley stuff, but now my perception has completely changed.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      October 5, 2018 at 5:00 pm

      There’s just something totally different about seeing it all in person. It seems stupid, but it actually makes a difference when you meet people. This is especially true if you’re a content creator like we are.

      Reply
  2. Mr. Groovy says

    September 30, 2018 at 8:11 am

    Let’s see…I just wrote my opus and FinCon would have been a wonderful opportunity to promote it and my brand. But nooooooooooooooo! Mrs. Groovy and I are right in the thick of building Groovy Ranch and we sold our FinCon tickets months ago because we convinced ourselves we couldn’t spare the time. As Bugs Bunny would say, “what a bunch of maroons.” Great post, my friend. Conferences done right are a great investment. Cheers.

    P.S. Hope you had a blast at FinCon! Looking forward to your review of the festivities.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      September 30, 2018 at 5:23 pm

      Man, Mr. Groovy. I hope you’re at FinCon 19! Otherwise, I might have to make you fly to Minnesota some time to catch all of us Minnesota peeps. You’re retired, so you got time on your hands!

      Reply
  3. Janet says

    September 30, 2018 at 7:49 am

    It was awesome meeting you yesterday!! Have a nice flight back!

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      September 30, 2018 at 5:22 pm

      Great to meet you too!

      Reply
  4. Cubert says

    September 29, 2018 at 5:58 am

    I thought you were going to start with “Because we don’t have kids!” LOL….

    Good points, Kevin. Honestly. This is why I’m hopeful to be at next year’s event. I’ve got a lot to learn, and it seems like FinCon is a gold mine for wisdom, motivation, and worthwhile tips.

    Bring back some good stories for our next round table!

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      September 29, 2018 at 8:23 am

      Will do!

      Reply
  5. Caroline says

    September 27, 2018 at 11:54 am

    To boost your motivation is a big one for me whenever I attend professional conferences.
    Hope you are enjoying FinCon:)

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      September 27, 2018 at 4:58 pm

      It definitely pumps you up! Hope to see you at the next one!

      Reply
  6. BRIAN ANDERSON says

    September 27, 2018 at 9:41 am

    i didn’t know you have a business partner. do you have any more info on that ?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      September 27, 2018 at 4:57 pm

      My best friend does all of the web and back-end stuff for this blog. He always comes with me to FinCon. Sort of the secret guy behind the scenes.

      Reply

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