I recently attended and spoke at the Conference for Counseling Athletes and while there were some interesting topics I realized professional conferences provide an important service to professionals in the field besides education and information.  Professional conferences allow you to gauge where you are in your career and validate (or possibly reject) the work you are doing.  In many professions even if you work with a group or larger department you become secluded.  You become secluded in your thinking, your process, and your expectations.  Without having contact with other professionals it is hard to expand your thinking or even be truly creative in your field.  Working in groups and with other talents helps progress the work you’re doing.  (See Malcolm Gladwell’s article on Group Think).

From my own experience I know how easy it is to get into a rhythm and not change the approach to the work your doing.  After learning how to do something and having it work (read: not go wrong) make a change is difficult because it becomes a risk and often we do not even recognize that a change is needed.  (This is something I addressed during my talk at the conference.  I’ve learned even though no one is complain it does not mean everything is working.)   Again, by attending a professional conference there are opportunities to see where you can make changes and get ideas on how to improve the work you are doing.

Also when you have the opportunity to present or lecture at a conference I think most people should.  It provided a unique experience for me.  While I have talked at other conference this was the first where the attendees were peers within my field.  Talking to this audience provided some excellent challenges for me.  First, I had to make sure I was clear with what I was talking about because if I wasn’t or made errors the attendees would know.  I want to sound professional.  For example, if I am talking about sport psychology skills to a group of tennis coaches the chances that any of them notice if I make a mistake is small.  Often it is from someone who has done some work in sport psychology or heard similar talks before.  But when I make a mistake in front of a room full of other professionals just about all of them may notice this and challenge me on it.  Second, from a creative/innovative standpoint I wanted to make sure that my presentation was interesting and worthwhile.  I know when I go to a conference I want to learn about new/different approaches, theories, and practices not just repackaged stuff I learned while in school.   Lastly, to get feedback in this type of setting is great because it is coming from people who know your profession.

While sometimes they are tedious or boring, by choosing the right professional conference and attending with proper expectations a lot can be gained.   So I encourage you to find a conference that fits and try to expand your professional horizons.