Top 5 Tips – Getting the most out of your #OneDayer

This sounds like the sort of guide you might read on your way to a festival, which is exactly what we hope you’ll feel when you head to July’s One Dayer. It’s a chance to meet loads of people working in your industry, from musicians to techies, promoters to producers, journalists, funders and entrepreneurs.

But with 50+ speakers and a day crammed full of opportunities – how will you get what you need out of the day? Julia Payne is the conference producer – so we asked her to share her tips.  

  1. Connect with people in advance

Connect with speakers and other delegates in advance. Follow us on twitter, and keep an eye on the #OneDayer hashtag. Like our facebook page.  Connect with the speakers on Linked In. Doing this will help you work out who and what you want to listen to on the day.

  1. With over 50 speakers to choose from, pick the sessions you go to carefully. Know what you want to get from it.

There are 3 main strands running through The One Dayer – money, technology and audiences – and we have over 50 speakers across the day. So, run through the programme in advance, and work out which sessions and speakers you’re most interested in. Generally speaking at any one point you’ll have a choice between a panel, insight session, 1-1 surgery sessions or just good old fashioned meetings and networking over a coffee.

  1. Make the event work for you – become a member of the community of the curious and the generous!

Go up and talk to the speakers or delegates who’ve inspired (or annoyed!) you the most. Talk to them about your work; get their advice; swap cards. Do business. Learn stuff. Share. One of my ambitions through Joining the Dots is to kick start a ‘community of the curious and the generous’ – a network of people who share what they know with each other. You’ll get more out of The One Dayer if you seek people out, are curious and generous, ask questions and engage with what’s going on.

  1. Think about how you can apply what you’ve heard – and give yourself time to digest it all afterwards

Set aside time after the event to go back through your notes, and think about how you can apply what’s being talked about to your own work. I always think you need another day after any conference to make sense of everything you’ve heard, work out how to apply it or follow it up. Of course I never do manage that in real life, but in terms of all of these tips, this is probably my top one of them all.

  1. Watch the downloads afterwards, and share them with your friends!

With 15 or so sessions across the day, you can’t be at all of them. So my last tip is to watch the downloads of the different sessions we’ll be putting online after the event. And you know what would make me really happy? If you shared those with people you know who you think would find them useful – continued to be a member of the ‘community of the curious and the generous’!

Joining the Dots: #One Dayer – Finance, Technology and the Future of Independent Music costs £40 and takes place on 1 July at Cecil Sharp House, London, 12.30-7.00pm. Book your tickets HERE.

The One Dayer is part of our Joining the Dots programme, funded by Arts Council EnglandEsmée Fairbairn FoundationCultural Institute at King’s College London and Musicians’ Union, with support from The GuardianKings Cultural Institute and the English Folk Dance and Song Society.