Speaker: Heather Blevins
What's your go-to tip for effective networking and making meaningful connections?
Heather Blevins: If you want to be a superstar networker this year at In2Risk, I have a few tips for you. The most important thing that you can remember is to be yourself and be ready to tell your story of your CPCU journey or maybe how you're still on the journey to get your CPCU. Everyone here at this conference is interested in making meaningful connections with others. It doesn't matter their tenure in the industry or their level of experience or the title that they carry in their company. They want to connect with you because someone at some point in their career, connected with them and help them along the way on their journey. So never be afraid to step out and speak and talk to anyone and establish meaningful dialogue with them. Just be prepared for them to ask you some questions about your experience, and where you want to go, and what you want to do with your life with CPCU. My second go to tip is a really technical one. If you're on the LinkedIn network which you should be because it is the professional social network, you can go into your contacts and up in the upper right hand corner in the search bar right there is a QR code. Now, QR Codes are ancient. They've been around for a long time but they've been revitalized and LinkedIn utilizes those so that you can share your LinkedIn profile and make a professional connection with anyone at this event, so be prepared, be ready, save a screenshot of that. If you can't remember how to get back to it whenever you're at the conference, save a picture and be able to share your linkedin profile with others so that you have the opportunity to be able to connect and have dialogue with people after In2Risk. That's where the most amazing connections can happen for you is after the conference. And I encourage all of you. What are you going to do with those connections after the conference? Get out there, meet people and then continue those relationships after we all leave San Francisco this year.
With so many great topics to choose from, how do you select your "can't-miss" educational sessions?
Heather Blevins: Hmm... How do I pick? What are my can't miss educational sessions at In2Risk? Whenever there are so many amazing topics to choose from. Well, first of all, I take a really good look at the agenda. And I look for those business acumen sessions that are going to increase my ability in the job role that I have to be able to speak languages to other areas of my organization. And I also look for those topics that are going to increase my, my acumen and my capability to be able to understand what's coming in the future for the insurance industry. And then I also look for a good set of those of those educational sessions that are going to provide me that professional leadership development that is unparalleled, unmatched and unrivaled at any other insurance conference that you're going to attend. I do that because let's face it, we are all leaders. No matter where we sit in our organizations. No matter what our title is. We all have, carry the the burden and the responsibilities of leadership and leading from where we are in our organizations, in our chapters in our interest groups. So I look for all of those types of educational sessions because I like to have a good mix in between business acumen, the future of insurance and professional leadership development. I encourage you to do the same
Give us your best overall advice for making the most of In2Risk!
Heather Blevins: My best overall advice for making the most of In2Risk is just to tell you, do not limit yourself from those personal connections that can happen outside of an educational session, maybe during lunchtime, maybe after hours. Find the time to make those personal connections with all of the people that you can meet at In2Risk. And the reason why that is, is because we all are dependent on each other in this industry to grow and learn and develop together. And in order to do that we need good, solid foundational relationships with those who are not only inside of our own company, but those who are outside of our company. So I encourage all of you to widen your circle, talk to people communicate, spend time. Just talking about all of the challenges and all of the interesting, amazing things that are happening in our industry right now and how you can learn more and grow more as an industry professional with all of those things. Take the time to attend those outside of In2Risk events but also make the very most of everything that you learn at this conference. And the reason why it is, is because it doesn't matter if we sit in a bunch of educational sessions for a few days and we do absolutely nothing with the information that we have learned at that conference. Figure out how you're going to apply what you learned in your day to day role or the next role that you're trying to get in your organization or wherever you may want to be wanting to go in the insurance industry. In2Risk can do that for you. But you gotta make those personal connections and take everything that you've learned back and apply it. What are you going to do next with it? That's the most important thing.
