For many years, I never bothered to check the flyers and free entrance tickets offers to attend an investment or business seminar which came via postal mail. In 2004, when I was venturing out on different business options, I got 2 free tickets to attend an internet related seminar. It was all about internet marketing, SEO and ecommerce websites. Being a software professional, I was attracted and decided to check it out.
That changed everything. It was worth a attempt and was totally worth my time as well. I got exposed to some pretty neat stuff which I never knew as a techie guy. I learnt many new things about search engine optimization(SEO) techniques and other aspects on how to get high rank in search engine. Actually it was an eye opener for me. May be I could have learnt them all by reading few books but it might have taken me months. First of, I wouldn’t have known where to start and wouldn’t have experimented it. With the expertise I gained in that seminar, I did my research and implemented few SEO techniques in my websites and got pretty good results. That was just a half day seminar and I was amazed by the impact of the free crash course.
After that seminar, my perspective towards free seminars changed and I started to look closely on the free seminar offers before throwing it out to see whether it’s worth few hours to gain something or not.
What are these Investment/Business seminars all about?
These half/one day seminars are hosted by different organization who are either investing institutions or teaching institutions hired by them. They arrange these seminar at big 3-4 star hotels in many big cities every month mostly from Spring till Fall season.
Their motivation behind is to attract people interested in business/investing ideas and peek interest by throwing attractive figures and numbers, hoping to lure you into 3-5 days workshops. Thats their ultimate goal to make money. They hope, if 50 people attend a session and atleast 20 signup, that would be enough to make profitable. Sometimes seminars are also conducted by wealth management firms and brokerage companies directly to explain their products and services.
Why should I go?
Are you an stock/bond investor or wannabe investor? Are you thinking about making some extra bucks by starting a new business or want to do something different?
If your answer is “Yes“, you better start attending these free seminars matches your interest and goals. Think it’s like a free crash course. It is so effective than reading books all day. Next question, you might ask whether it will be worth my time? I can assure you it will surely worth your time in long term. But only choose to go to seminars that matches your interest. If you been thinking about investing in stocks and funds, go and check out stock trading seminars. If you want to know more about real estate investing, attend seminars hosted by those type of organizations.
For example, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyoski started events to talk about real estate via his Rich Dad Education group. You can look out for their events at http://www.richdadeducation.com/
Gimme some or alteast 5 reasons to attend these seminars?
I can list down many reasons but there are the 5 importants reasons/advantages to attend these type of seminars.
1. Free Education
I won’t say, you will learn everything. But you will surely learn some good and dirty tricks. You should be able to get some pointers and books which might help you to know where to start. You either pick up certain topic from the seminar and research more further to learn the intricacies which will surely help in your trade or future endeavors.
2. Learn new tricks
Even if you are Pro and knowledgeable in your field, you can still crab some funky tricks from these semianrs. I never knew a website called “Zillow.com” until I attended a real estate seminar. I got to know many great tricks and decent websites just by attending these seminars. I didn’t know how real estate flipping or wholesale worked. Thanks to these seminars. Many seminars are hosted really with entertaining and well prepared materials to create interest among auidence to attract them to sign up. You will surely enjoy it.
3. Free Materials
You might be lucky enough to get some giveaways and free offers in these seminars. It is just worth to get these giveaways like CD’s and books even if the seminar is not upto your expectation. One thing tough, try to take seating in front rows so you can hurry and crab these giveaways if offered.
4. Networking
These seminars provide a great ground to talk and network with like minded people. You may even end up learning and partnering with those who attend these seminars.
5. Tax Advantage
Last but not the lease, do you know you can write off the time spent and vehicle mileage to attend these seminars in your tax returns? Especially if you own a business or file self employment tax return, you can claim them under business expenses. This is really a good kick to top off all the pros in attending these seminars.
Hope these 5 reasons will convince you to attend these seminars and workshops. I will also talk more about the do’s and don’t in my next post and share some experience about the new trend in the seminar industry, Webinars and Webcasts. Watch out…
Source: Image from web.
December 22nd, 2010 
Vijaianand 
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