Accelerating Your Career Development and Advancement

Attending a professional conference can be an extraordinary experience. Continually learning about the latest technologies, trends, and issues product stewards face on a day-to-day basis and building your professional network are key to furthering your career. As rewarding as it is to attend a conference, speaking at a conference can accelerate your career development even further.

Speaking in front of a large group of your peers can seem daunting, but there is no arguing the career growth opportunities that come with the experience. Here are some ways how speaking can help your career:

Expand your network

Professional conferences offer many networking opportunities, especially if you are one of the speakers. Not only do you get more exposure than the regular attendee, people will seek you out with questions or for advice.

Build your communication skills

Skills you develop as a speaker make you more valuable to your organization (or a potential employer). As they say, better communicators make better managers. Those skills can be applied to all aspects of your job, from meetings with your own team or other departments, to daily interactions with your employees, supervisors, and other colleagues.

Improve your critical thinking skills

Preparing to speak in front of your peers requires a great deal of careful thought, from warming up the audience to your closing sentence. It's not enough to have a message, you also need to figure out how to tailor your message to fit the needs of your audience. When you start thinking critically about your speaking style, you will find ways to improve your communication skills.

Continue your own professional development

Anytime you speak at a conference or event, you learn something new from experience. Getting up in front of a larger group of people is an incredible motivator to review and research material. It's also an opportunity to gain constructive feedback from your peers that you can apply to future presentations.

Become a recognized thought leader

By speaking at an industry conference, you get an opportunity to share your insight and expertise with a large group of your peers. By helping others become more knowledgeable, you can position yourself as an expert and thought leader in product stewardship.

The Product Stewardship Society is always looking for dynamic speakers to share new ideas, practical solutions, and best practices that help product stewards manage their day-to-day challenges and prepare for the issues of tomorrow. Consider submitting a speaker proposal for the Product Stewardship Conference or a webinar.

Still hesitant about speaking? Think about partnering with a colleague to co-present. Or consider authoring a blog post as a first step.