Justifying Your Attendance

After reading about why you should attend, and who is attending, you may be convinced you need to be in Orlando. So the question may now be "how do I convince my boss?"

At a time when budgets are being slashed and people are being laid-off, it can be very difficult to get the company wallet to open. Sometimes a boss may think that a conference trip is just a junket. While he or she may imagine the World Event is like the management trip they took to some exotic locale for wining, dining and golf, you know the truth. Most people going to PTC/USER come home exhausted from the 10+ hour days they put in attending presentations, training, receptions, demonstrations and more.

Here are some ideas to help you justify your attendance at the World Event this year, and every year:

Use our "Letter to My Boss" as a starting point for a discussion. We even let you send an e-mail from our system with your name and your boss' name in the letter. You can also download the letter if you would like to edit it and send it yourself.

Tie conference attendance to your professional development plan. The special training and knowledge you can obtain at the World Event may make it a requirement for you to attend. Some companies may have annual training goals that can be satisfied by conference attendance.

Compare the cost of the conference to an educational course. PTC/USER is a bargain relative to the typical course tuition of $400-500 per day, not including meals and other expenses. Not only do you get access to over 300 educational and training sessions but you get to tap into a vast network of experts in the user community, PTC and Industry Partners.

Write a detailed trip report, and publicize it. Share the wealth of knowledge with your co-workers. As managers see all that you've learned and that you're willing to spread the word, they will be far more likely to fund your trip again in future years.

Use at least one productivity-boosting measure from the conference and implement it. Make sure you document what you've done and show how you made improvements. Managers will definitely notice this. If you've implemented ideas from the World Event in the past, be sure to also remind your boss of this as a tangible result that helped your team or company.

Use at least one bug fix or workaround that prevents downtime and implement it. Again, make sure you document what you've done. Avoiding work delays always saves time and money and you won't have much convincing to do with your manager.

Connect your business goals to conference content. Show how you and others gain more expertise and knowledge towards helping the business. This argument puts less of the focus on your professional goals, and more on the company.

Train other people. Setup a team meeting when you return and use the proceedings materials (the slides) to make presentations on what you've learned. Your boss will love the fact that you're providing training to his team for little additional cost.

Compute the cost of a high-priced consultant and show your management how much free hallway or electronic consulting you've received. Almost all of the consultants and developers are more than happy to chat with real users. At $400-$500 an hour for a consultant, that can add up.

Consider a one-day pass as an alternative. If you just can't get the funds to do a complete conference trip, then consider attending for one day. This may be especially attractive if you live within driving distance of Orlando. Once you attend, you can build a case for full attendance in a future year.

By making the effort and showing the value of participation to your boss, you just may persuade them that you need to be at the PTC/USER World Event this year.