3 Ways You Can Attend a Conference for Free

3 Ways You Can Attend a Conference for Free

Whether you’re a corporate employee, solopreneur, career changer or small business owner there will likely come a time when you want to attend an industry conference in your town hoping to learn and network but simply can’t afford the ticket price.

Case in point, today, some conference passes can cost as much as $7000! (Here are just a few.)

The good news is there are a few tried and true ways you can possibly get a conference pass for free:

1. Approach a sponsor because most of them get a handful of complimentary passes as part of their sponsorship package. You can offer to work for them (man a booth, run a session, pass out flyers, shoot videos of their speakers, etc) in exchange for a ticket to the conference. (Check the conference website for a list of sponsors.)
2. Contact the event host or organizer and offer to work the check-in table, conduct a workshop or do social media for them during the conference in exchange for a conference pass. (When I was on the board of an industry association back in Seattle, we had people offering to do this all the time and we usually accepted.)
3. Similar to above, reach out to companies/vendors that are exhibiting at the conference expo and offer to work for them, again, in exchange for a ticket to the conference. (Pay special attention to companies where you may know someone or had a prior relationship.)

Bottom line, as my old friend Ruth, used to say, “A closed mouth don’t get fed,” so you have to ASK to get what you want/need and the worst thing that can happen is they say no.

If you’d like to read some speaking related tips check out one of my other posts on the subject here.