The Wellspring

With the Brightest Young Minds event in Sydney coming up, I recently accompanied a friend of mine on her shopping trip to buy a garment bag. It occurred to me that whilst many young people have probably had some experience packing for camping or backpacking, attending a conference is, understandably, quite different. And while it probably couldn’t be described as difficult, there are a few things to keep in mind that will make the trip just that little bit easier.

Conferences present a totally different set of circumstances to packing for leisure: they are usually for shorter periods (probably two to five days), where you’ll be spending most of your time at a climate-controlled conference venue, dressed in formalwear. You’ll probably have very good access to transport (planes and taxis - you probably won’t have to deal with buses or trains) and require good access to technology (laptops and USB memory sticks, if you’re presenting).

Luggage
For anything under four or five days, you can probably get away with packing a carry-on suitcase (one with wheels will make any airport walking a lot easier) or garment bag (which can be hung up during the flight and upon your check-in to your hotel, decreasing the chances of wrinkles in your clothing). This allows you to get on and off the plane much quicker, and helps in forcing you to keep your baggage to a minimum (the official limit is 7kg, though from experience I find that luggage is often disqualified more for size than weight). However, relying on carry-on luggage also puts certain items off-limits: certain aerosols, tweezers, scissors, any knives and other pointy objects are only permitted in check-in luggage (and of course, other dangerous goods are prohibited altogether from both carry-on and check-in baggage).

The Essentials
Start with all the essentials:

• In a separate daypack:
• Identification and money
• Business cards
• Conference registration and papers
• Mobile phone, notebook computer and USB memory stick (if required), along with any chargers you’ll need
• With your other luggage:
• Toiletries (remember that the hotel will probably have soap, shampoo and conditioner) and any medication you require
• Adequate socks and underwear
• Whatever you wear to bed

You’ll also have to bring one business suit and pair of formal shoes (think long and hard about bringing more than one jacket and one pair of formal shoes - both are very heavy and hard to manage). A dark grey or charcoal suit is probably the most versatile; capable of being worn during the conference itself and also to functions afterwards. (Pinstripe suits tend to look more out of place in non-business situations.)

Additional clothing
On top of that, you’ll want to try to keep it to a minimum. The truth is that you can probably wear the same outfit (more or less) for a few days: most conference venues are kept pretty cool and you won’t be doing a lot of moving to make you dirty or smelly. And in larger conferences, you probably won’t hang around with the same person long enough for them to notice that Hey, weren’t you wearing that yesterday (and the day before), anyway.

For conferences of three or four days, you can get away with bringing two or three business shirts and one extra pair of trousers. Don’t forget to bring enough ties and a belt, too.

Social clothing
Guys should also bring along a sweater (a black or grey v-neck sweater is probably the most versatile) and / or vest. You can alternate between these and your jacket during the conference, and also wear them more casually in any informal or social events. Ladies, you might consider bringing a lighter, informal jacket.

You might also want to bring along a pair of jeans (or preferably a lighter pair of pants; jeans are rather heavy) for social events, as well as a short- or long-sleeved tee or polo shirt that you can wear underneath your sweater. Don’t forget a pair of informal shoes.

What not to bring
The biggest temptation is bringing more of the items listed above. But experience (and luggage restrictions) will help you learn that bringing an excess really becomes a hassle; there is more to take care of, worry about, and lug around. Even in the case of spilling something on your clothing, the list above allows for substitutions - you’ll never be caught out without a vital piece of clothing or equipment.

Other items that you should be wary of bringing along include reading books, gym gear and wet-weather gear. There will probably be enough conference reading to keep you occupied during any dull moments; and in the evening you should meeting people, not couped up reading. If you’re stuck, consider getting a newspaper instead; it’ll be more relevant to the conference and other participants.

With regard to gym clothing: your hotel might have the facilities, but you probably won’t have the time or inclination to exercise. Seriously. Unless you’re a sportsperson who desperately needs to keep in shape, bringing gym clothing will just get in the way (running shoes are especially heavy) and make you feel guilty for not exercising.

Lastly, wet-weather (umbrellas and raincoats) may seem like a good idea, especially if the city you’re visiting is expecting inclement weather. But you’ll probably be staying fairly close to the conference venue, and spend most of your days inside. Bringing a heavy umbrella will just become an extra item to worry about. If you’re really desperate, ask your hotel for an umbrella; many will loan one to you free of charge.

Special circumstances
This is probably as much as you’ll need for a longer conference. For shorter stays, start by getting rid of some of those business shirts and the additional pair of trousers.

And of course, if you’re going to a city with particularly hot or cold weather, you’ll also have to adjust what you bring.

Good luck!

The most fundamental interpersonal skill one can have is the ability to communicate efficiently and effectively. In an age of email and SMS, there are more opportunities than ever to make mistakes. And yet while some are very obvious, others are less so. Here are my top five oft-overlooked communication errors:

Being verbose
The aim of communication is to convey a message, and most times, you want to do this as quickly and clearly as possible. Especially when space or time is scarce (I’m thinking voicemail messages, emails, most business correspondence and - of special note - funding applications), you want to be concise. Showing off your language skills or intelligence or waffling on anything irrelevant impresses no one - it just annoys them. Learn how to pitch an idea or concept quickly and clearly, and how to structure text so it’s easily read and understood - it’ll be worth your while.

Choosing the wrong medium
Certain messages and interactions work better using specific media. A request for a file would probably be best sent via email, making it easier for the person to email you back with the file from his or her computer. Simple notifications are fine for SMS, while open-ended questions and statements of significance (’Hi, how are you?’ or ‘I don’t think we’re working out’) are not. Telephone often works well for questions requiring an immediate response to a simple question (’Can we reschedule the meeting for Thursday?’) but is probably inappropriate outside of business hours, or if the person has specifically stated that they prefer email correspondence, as is increasingly the case. Giving some thought to the medium best suited for the task makes everyone’s job a little easier. (Hint: if you’re having trouble deciding, think of which form you’d most appreciate a response in.)

Not replying to others
When people request something from another, it usually indicates that they trust the person to be able to help them out. Unless you’ve got a good reason not to (the request was totally unsolicited and incorrectly targeted, you’re exceptionally busy, they’ve ignored your instructions to communicate to you in a certain fashion, etc) you should get back to them as soon as practicably possible. Obviously, this is especially important if you’ve indicated that you will get back to them by a certain time. Lots of email can be answered in less than two minutes per message. (And if you expect delays, you can always quickly write a response letting the inquirer know of the situation.) Being responsive to the requests of others is professional, indicates respect for the inquirer, and builds your credibility as a go-to-guy/gal.

Not including the appropriate people in the discussion
The decision as to who to include in a discussion has wider ramifications than what you might initially think. Deciding not to include someone is to effectively judge that they are not entitled to a stake in the decision and that they would not be willing or able to contribute. An incorrect decision here can signal disloyalty, mistrust, conspiracy - which can ruin a relationship. This is especially true if you are aware that someone has professed an interest in a particular issue.

That’s not to say that everyone has to be brought on at once and from the beginning, but that interested parties should be informed and invited to participate in the discussion’s formative stages. Think carefully!

Refusing to apologise
Your mother probably told you that one should apologise when one has done something wrong. She was right. You might think that ignoring peccadilloes has the effect of drawing less attention to them - well, maybe - but probably not. People have an uncanny ability to sense and remember injustice, so accepting responsibility, apologising and moving on unencumbered is probably well worth it. Not to mention the right thing to do.

By the same token, saying thank you is nice, too!

So you know that if you’re attending large events, business cards are a good idea. But most young people don’t have business cards they can use - they don’t have an employer who provides personalised cards, or their employer is not in a relevant field to the event that the young person is attending.

There is, of course, another option: get some business cards printed yourself! It’s not as difficult as you might think, and, oh, the benefits: having business cards saves you the time and effort of writing your details on a napkin, and being able to oversee their design ensures that you’ll have something you can be happy with, which will leave an impression and provide a little more information to a potential contact.

And with some looking around, you should be able to find printers who’ll do a run of 1000 good-quality full-colour double-sided 310gsm cards (you probably don’t want to go much thinner than that, and 360gsm is probably getting towards as thick as you’d like it) - which will last you a few years - for about $200; well worth the price. I like the earthiness of wood-free stock (ie recycled card), but if you’d prefer something a little more hard-wearing try a matte cellosheen finish (which gives a slight plastic-y feel to it). Unfinished cards look like they’ve been done on a home printer, whilst glossy cellosheen looks over-the-top.

What information to include
At a minimum, your cards should contain all your basic contact information. If you move around a bit (and remember that one print run will probably last you a few years), try to list only information that isn’t going to change - pen lines hastily scribbled through outdated contact information is nasty! You might consider inlcuding your name, city (and country if you attend lots of international events), email address, website address (have you set up a personal website yet?), and mobile telephone number. Postal addresses and landline telephone numbers aren’t that useful anymore, having been largely superseded by email addresses and mobile telephone numbers.

The question of whether to list a position is a little more difficult. Many young people don’t have a relevant position that they can list, or their positions change so often that a listing would soon be outdated (which means more nasty pen lines!), or else they have so many positions on various committees and organisations that listing them all would look pretentious. If this is you, there are a few options: you can leave the position out altogether, you can put something general onto your card (like ‘youth advocate’) or you can do what I do and instead use the other side of the card to introduce yourself in a little more depth, and without the pigeonholing limitation of a position name. The small size of business cards gives you about a paragraph to clearly state who you are (it might be worth noting that you’re a young person), what your interests are and what you do.

The introduction on my cards reads:

Alan Wu is a young Australian working with a range of government, non-government and intergovernmental organisations to build a more socially just society. He’s especially interested in:

• the role of international institutions in promoting human development,
• building social capital and the capacity of communities to engage in decision-making, and
• innovative social and political applications of new technology.

Sound interesting? Get in touch.

A longer introduction like this is likely to be more informative then a mere position name, more memorable and lead to better follow-up (which is, after all, what you’re really looking for).

Other tactics to get your business card retained include using the reverse side to display useful information (for example, a calendar of major events in the sector, a chart of organisations, or a list of useful websites), a colourful banner graphic or space for notes. I’m especially fond of the last idea and include a little box on my card that says ‘Contact me regarding ….’. I figure that you’re most likely to give your card out at the end of an introductory conversation, and that reminding the person of a reason to contact you can be helpful. If Ive got nothing in particular to follow-up on, I can always fill in the space with something generic, like ‘Contact me regarding anything you like.’

Design considerations
Design is another difficult area for young people. Without affiliation to a specific organisation, you’ve got a lot more freedom in determining how you want your business card to look - and this freedom can often be difficult to deal with.

Ultimately, only you can properly judge what your business card should look like. You should consider the type of events you attend, the type of people you’re likely to give your card to, and the impression you want to convey. You probably want a design that speaks to your youthfulness but that still looks professional and credible. I find that bright, simple and clear designs work well.

There has been a tendency towards longer, thinner cards, which I think look a little more modern and accessible. However, consider also the many accessories that have been built around the standard business card size (90mm x 55mm) - wallets, business card holders, etc. Whilst a square card may look elegant, it’s not much good if the person receiving it can’t put it into their card holder because it won’t fit. Whilst a thin rectangular card may look funky, it’s not much use if it’s more easily lost within a pile of other cards. It may be better to try to stand our by using more vibrant or interesting graphic design, rather than by using non-standard sizes or shapes.

Also be aware that design of your business cards is not usually included in the price of printing. Whilst you can usually pay a little more to get the printer’s in-house designers to design your card, I’d highly recommend designing it yourself (call your printers to ask how they’d like the design - most accept emailed .pdf files created in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop). If you do create it yourself, start with an image that measures 93mm x 58mm (the extra 3mm each way allows for any printing offset) and is set at 300dpi. The greatly increased level of control you can get from being able to play around with your ideas for a few days and ask friends for comments is invaluable, and can often make for a much stronger design.

Business cards are a vital tool in developing your networks - a little investment of time and money to design something you won’t be ashamed to show others is worth it. Good luck!

So, you’ve registered a domain name, signed up for a domain name service (DNS) and arranged web hosting - you’ve got a place on a web - so what to do with it?

There are two basic elements that most people will want to use: a website of some sort, and email. Let’s deal with each of these.

How to construct a website depends largely on what you want.

Static information (such as a general biography, resume, and contact information or contact form) can be easily produced by using programs that will generate HyperText Markup Language (HTML, the code that specifies what content is displayed on the web) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS, the code that specifies how content is displayed) for you like Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage. These programs use a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) interface, making it simple for you to pull together different elements into a useable site. Alternatively, you can learn HTML and CSS yourself. This isn’t particularly difficult (and it’s useful to know a little bit of both of these, in any case), and affords a much greater degree of control. Regardless, construction of a website usually involved developing a website and testing it on your own computer before transferring it to your webhosting provider’s servers so that it is viewable by the rest of the world (at http://www.yourname.com/). This is usually done via File Transfer Protocol (FTP), using details provided by your webhosting provider. Popular FTP clients for Windows include WS_FTP and CuteFTP. Mac users might like to try Cyberduck (free!) or Transmit. The technical and design considerations of building a website are numerous and beyond the scope of this tutorial: but numerous websites like Webmonkey offer detailed articles on the subject.

If you intend to update your website regularly and are not too fussed about what it looks like, consider developing a web log, or blog. A blog is a type of website, regularly updated with information in reverse chronological order. Blogs usually offer syndication of content (meaning that, instead of visiting the blog regularly to check for new content, you can subscribe to a blog’s feed via a reader program and be updated only when new content is published), and an automated mechanism that allows the content creator to easily update the website. Blogger, Windows Live Spaces, Yahoo! 360 and Myspace are all examples of blogging software, though these platforms are usually hosted on their servers (giving you uglified addresses like http://yourname.blogspot.com/, rather than prettified addresses like http://www.yourname.com/). The two main user-hosted blogging platforms are WordPress (a free, open-source effort which I use for this blog and recommend highly), and MoveableType (which is free for personal bloggers, but costs if you are using it for commercial purposes). Both packages offer detailed instructions for installation (WordPress is especially easy to install), which involves uploading the files to your server, setting up a database, and running an installation script. Once you’ve installed the platform, pick a presentation template (or download another from the web) and you’re ready to start writing. Despite sounding slightly daunting, most installations are quite straightforward, and ample support is available from the communities of users who use both products. (New Zealand web developer Rachel Cunliffe has an especially good screencast tutorial on how to setup a Wordpress installation - including installing the database, uploading the files, configuring the installation, writing posts and uploading images, and installing plugins - at http://www.cre8d-design.com/blog/2006/08/20/wordpress-screencast-tutorial-1/.)

Lastly, you might also consider installing a wiki on your webspace. A wiki (popularised by Wikipedia) is a space where anyone can establish, develop and refine information. Wikipedia has all sorts of articles, but smaller wiki usually contain articles around specific subjects. Like a blog, editing information on wikis is pretty painless, and does not require knowledge of HTML or CSS. I’ve found Wikis especially useful where you want to centralise information that a group has on a specific subject, or where you want to quickly document work on a particular project (which works well if you discuss issues by email and then document outcomes on the wiki). Wikipedia uses the MediaWiki platform, but I’ve found it to be quite unwieldy (when installed, it’s over 10MB and requires a MySQL database) for most purposes. A simpler, easier-to-manage platform that I’ve used with much success previously is PmWiki (which when installed is just less than 1MB and stores its information in plain text files, which can be easily backed-up and recovered). Again, refer to the platform’s own documentation for step-by-step installation instructions.

Of course, you can mix these different web applications together. You might like to have, as I do, a blog at the top level of your domain, a static page about you in a subdirectory (see http://www.alanwu.org/alanwu/) and a wiki in a subdomain.

If you can’t be bothered putting anything structured up on your website (and, if nothing else, having webspace can be useful for putting up random files that you want yourself and others to be able to access from anywhere in the world), you’ll be relieved to find that setting up email is a much less burdensome process. Given that it remains the internet’s most used protocol, and that setting email up on your domain name can give you an easy-to-remember, unembarassing email address (such as yourname@yourname.com instead of the sexy_sarah_2222@hotmail.com address you currently have but can’t put on your CV, or the s1938581785@student.someuni.edu.au address that you’ll lose once you graduate) for life. Again, it’s a matter of setting the whole thing up once, after which things should. just. work. (Hopefully.)

It used to be that, after you had paid to register a domain and signed up DNS hosting, you had to pay another provider to handle your email. No longer! Both Google and Microsoft now offer free services that allow you to set up and administer email addresses at your domain. Google’s offering, Gmail for your domain, gives you, predictably, the functionality of Gmail, including 2GB of storage and the ability to check your mail either through Gmail online or through the mail client of your choice (such as Microsoft Outlook Express or Apple Mail). Unfortunately, like many of Google’s products, it’s in beta testing and is accessible via invitation only. It’s worth putting your name forward and seeing if you get picked (I’ve several domains hosted with Gmail for your domain, and all of my applications to participate in the beta testing were approved in a matter of days). Failing that, you can try Microsoft’s (inferior) service, Windows Live Custom Domains, which is open to all. Windows Live Custom Domains doesn’t offer as much storage (a measly 25MB per address), and you have to check your mail through MSN Hotmail, (no direct mail-checking from your mail client allowed!), but beggars can’t be choosers, right?

Both services are, again, quite easy to establish and use, and come with detailed instructions. Set up requires adding Mail Exchanger (MX) records to your DNS (if you are using NearlyFreeSpeech.NET, click on the ‘domains’ tab, then the ‘Manage’ button under the ‘DNS’ column coinciding with your domain, then the ‘Add a DNS Resource Record’ link on the right sidebar). This tells your server to route incoming mail to your domain to the appropriate service. Once you’ve added these records, it’s simply a matter of logging into Gmail for your domain or Windows Live Custom Domains and adding email addresses and setting passwords. Then you’re good to go. Wee!

So that’s it. Don’t feel obliged to set up everything when you first get started - the best presences are planned and grow organically. Do, however, fiddle around and explore the software that is out there (there is an incredible open-source movement that develops all sorts of useful, free stuff). Once you’ve staked your claim to your space on the web, it’s yours as long as you keep it registered. Have fun!

Okay, so, now that you understand how the different components work together, you’re ready to choose your providers and sign up for the services.

This part of the tutorial is pretty technical and tiresome, but doesn’t actually take that long. You’ll only have to complete the tasks here once, when you sign up, so don’t be discouraged!

Though you can sign up for your services separately, the process of doing so is rather complex (all those usernames and passwords!), and doesn’t actually provide that much of a cost saving over being prudent with selecting a provider that does it all. Just be sure to look around.

My domain name registration, domain name service (DNS) and web hosting are all provided by one company: NearlyFreeSpeech.NET. I’ve been with them for over a year, and found them reliable, attentive (support requests are generally answered within a few hours), and exceptionally cheap: top-level domain name registration is USD$7 / year, DNS is free and automatically set up for you, and web hosting is charged at USD1 cent per megabyte-month (meaning that you can store a megabyte with them for a month and it will only cost you one, single cent), with bandwidth charged at USD$1.00 per gigabyte of data transferred. And just for the record: I receive no consideration for this recommendation. They truly are a good service.

Of course, you can choose any provider you like: I’ve also heard good things about Dreamhost.

Signing up for these services is simple. Visit NearlyFreeSpeech.Net and select ‘Sign Up Now’ from the left navigation. Follow the instructions to choose a username, create a membership, and confirm your (existing) email address. Once this is done, log into the member area, set up your personal bandwidth account and follow the instructions to fund it with a credit card or PayPal. If you’re just starting out and want one domain to play around with, USD$10 should be adequate (NearlyFreeSpeech.NET will deduct $0.90 as a deposit fee, which will leave you with $9.10 on your account).

Once you’ve got an operational, funded account you can get down to business.

First: register your domain: after signing into your account, click on ‘Domain Registration’ in the bottom left navigation, then ‘Register a New Domain’ from the resulting sub-navigation on the right. When choosing a new domain name, consider something that you’ll be able to use far into the future. Whilst you should probably try your first and last names (they’ll probably already be taken) - you’ll probably have the most luck with your full name. Remember to check .com, .org and .net (the other top-level domains, such as .biz, .info and .name, are probably not adequately recognised by most people to be attractive options).

The steps for registration are all very straightforward: when asked about assigning name servers (DNS), select ‘Set up DNS and name servers automatically.’. Once completed, USD$7 will be deducted from the account into which you just deposited USD$10 (which, after the deposit fee, should leave you with a total of USD$2.10), to cover the cost of registering the domain. (If you are not using NearlyFreeSpeech.NET, you will have to manually add a CNAME record pointing www.yourname.com to yourname.nfshost.com or wherever else it may be directly accessed - you can find this information from your hosting service.) Upon confirmation, you will have registered your domain name. Congratulations!

Next, you’ll need to set up web hosting and DNS so that when people visit www.yourname.com they’ll be able to see something. To do this, go back to the main member page, and click on ‘Create New Site’ under your funded account. Pick a short name (yourname is usually a good option), and when asked whether you’d like to add an alias, select ‘Yes’, and type in the domain name you’ve just registered, preceded with ‘www’ (ie www.yourname.com). The click ‘Create Now’.

In a few minutes, when NearlyFreeSpeech.NET’s servers have finalised setting everything up, you will have a live website. It should be immediately accessible via the short name address (usually yourname.nfshost.com), and in a few hours, will be available at your domain name (www.yourname.com). Granted, there won’t be anything up there (visitors will see a notice saying that your website is not available), but at least it will be live on the global interweb!

The other good news is that once you’ve set up your website, you won’t have to go through the process again. For the most part, you won’t have to deal with this interface again. Hurrah!

Next: setting up some content (a blog) on your website and your email hosting.

So, news has been a little slow over the past few days. Time for a tutorial!

One of the questions I am most frequently asked is how I set up my domain (www.alanwu.org). It’s not as difficult as you may think - with a little patience and a willingness to do some reading, anyone can do it. Nor is it as expensive - a yearly presence with a .com or .org domain name will set you back about AUD$15 - $20, depending on how big and how popular your website is.

This three-part tutorial will take you through the process of registering a domain name, setting up a website and getting email at your domain working. The whole process takes two or three hours, which consists mostly of filling in online registration forms and waiting to receive information. A basic understanding of the global interweb is useful, but not really necessary - though there’s a lot of jargon, but for the most part you don’t actually need to understand how it all works (only that it does, indeed, work). The most technically difficult aspect of the whole process is developing the website, but even if you don’t have expertise in that area, you can still get a perfectly functional presence online by adopting ready-made designs. This tutorial will use specific services (the ones that I currently use myself), but if you choose not to use these, the information should still be applicable.

To complete the process, you’ll need internet access, an existing email account, and a credit card (payments are processed electronically, so this is a must).

First: let’s run through what we’ll do: to get everything working, you’ll need to sign up for four different services. These components work together to link a domain name (like yourname.com) to a website (so that people will be able to see something when they visit yourname.com), with a working email service (so you can send and receive information via yourname@yourname.com).

The first service is domain registration: the process of reserving a domain name with a central authority (called a registry) so that no one but you can use it. Domain names are of the form example.com (and NOT www.example.com). Domain registrars act as intermediaries between you and the registry, and they charge a fixed annual fee for this service.

Top-level domains, such as yourname.com, yourname.net, and yourname.org, are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and sold through ICANN-accredited registrars. Prices vary widely, so it really pays to look around. You should be paying between USD$5 - $15 for a domain name for a year.

Australian country-level domains, such as yourname.com.au, yourname.net.au, yourname.org.au and yourname.id.au, are administered by the .au Domain Administration (auDA), and similarly sold through auDA-accredited registrars. The rules for registering an Australian-level domain name are much stricter than those at the top-level (for example, you must be a bona fide not-for-profit organisations to register yourname.org.au, whilst anyone can register yourname.org). Because of the tighter differentiation between domains, they are also priced differently: .com.au and .net.au retail for around AUD$50 for two years, whilst .org.au and .id.au retail for around AUD$15 - $30 for two years.

The second service is the Domain Name Service (DNS), which tells the world what you want to do with your domain name. Most commonly, it is used to create a hostname. Most hostnames have another word attached to the domain name like www.yourname.com. Each hostname corresponds to a website. DNS links this hostname to your website, so when people want to visit www.yourname.com, their web browser can find it. This is a little like calling directory assistance to have them find a phone number based on someone’s name.

The third service is web hosting, which refers to the storage and retrieval of your actual web pages. After a web browser has checked with the registrar to see that your domain name is valid, and checked with DNS to find out where to look for your website, it goes to your web host to retrieve your web pages. This is the simplest of the three, and the only one that can work by itself. If you don’t have a domain name registered or DNS service, you can always still refer to your site, though it will have a much less glamorous address (usually something like yourname.yourisp.com).

The fourth service is email hosting, which provides you with the capability to send and receive email using an address @yourname.com. You don’t require this service, but email remains the most important and most-used service on the internet, and having an address @yourname.com is easy for your friends to remember. It used to be quite expensive, but new operators like Microsoft and Google have recently entered the sector offering free services.

Often, these services are bundled together. Buying them like this makes it much easier for you, but also makes it much more expensive, especially if you select an Australian provider (where there seems to be less competition). When comparing prices, it’s important to understand which specific services are included in the price (for example, registration is often sold by itself, but means very little unless you sign up with DNS and web hosting).

Next up: selecting service providers, on the cheap!

As promised, here are the last five tips:

• Have a prepared comment on what you do, and what makes you special
  Invariably one of the first questions you’ll be asked is what you do. If you hold a position with a smaller organisation or are self-employed, you’ll often need to go further than merely stating your position name. In these cases, having something memorised can be very useful. Apart from saving you from stumbling over your words, a prepared comment can more methodically highlight the position’s complexities, interesting points and particularly noteworthy achievements. If you hit the right note with this introduction, you can greatly increase your chances of having a more rewarding conversation. By the same token, knowing what makes you special - why you’ve been selected to participate - is useful in determining what unique contributions you can make to discussions and how you might like to position yourself in relation to other participants. Knowing and exploiting this point of difference can help you stand out and be remembered.
• It takes time before a contact becomes useful
  You’ll probably encounter a few people who appear to be expert schmoozers, working the room with a vengeance and collecting a fistful of business cards. Such haphazard and superficial networking is seldom useful. Whilst it would be an error to stay with the same people for the whole conference, introducing yourself and asking for business cards from other delegates isn’t going to do you much good. A contact is only going to genuinely help you out if they feel you are worth helping - you have to be seen as skilful and likeable. As a rule of thumb, if you have to ask for their business card, then you haven’t reached that threshold. Take time to really talk to people and be genuinely interested in what they do. It’s only after they know you (at least a little) that they’ll be willing, in future, to lend a hand.
• Dress slightly more formally than requested
  Beware of casual dress codes! Apart from the difficulty nowadays of ascertaining exactly what a code like ’smart business casual’ means, participants often ignore these casual dress codes, especially if the conference is being held in an urban location on a weekday. While of course how you interact with other participants will ultimately determine how you are perceived, you may find that dressing slightly more formal than requested will bring you into line with many of the other participants and make it that much easier and less intimidating to participate in conversations.
• Have an opinion
  Aside from general introductions, the most frequent topic of conversation will relate to the conference’s presentations and workshops. It is very tempting to stay silent in these discussions, unsure of how you feel about a particular topic or wary of making comment before you’ve had a greater chance to read more about it. While there is certainly much to be gained by listening to the conversations of others, it is worth your while to form opinions and be unafraid of discussing them, at least insofar as they are disclaimed as preliminary opinions. Agreement and disagreement are both positive, and provide invaluable opportunities of engaging with participants and the conference material.
• Leverage your youthfulness
  Last but not least, remember that as young people we can get away with a little more! Whether it’s making more courageous or innovative statements or using feigned unfamiliarity with protocol to gain access to restricted meetings or people (if you walk in with enough confidence you might find yourself lucky), your youthfulness provides a valuable (and time-limited) opportunity to get a little more from your experience. Everyone seeks to stand out, and youthfulness often provides a way of doing so without being written off as gauche or grandstanding. Take advantage of it while you can!

Apologies for not writing over the past few days: I’ve been in Brisbane attending the Future Summit. It was an ambitious event, but I was heartened to see the number of young people invited. I thought it might be useful to go through some of the lessons I’ve learnt as a result of attending this event and other similar large-scale conferences. These events are often difficult for young people to navigate, so if you’re lucky enough to get to attend one, I’ve compiled some useful tips to help make the experience as easy and rewarding as possible. Five tips today (in no particular order); the next five tomorrow.

• Ensure your business cards and nametag are interesting
  If you are attending a large conference, business cards are a must. Everyone else will have them, and when you’re offered one and don’t return the favour, you’ll look haughty or amateurish. Cards come cheap nowadays (you can get 1000 full colour cards - which will last you a long time - on good quality stock for about $200) so you’ve no excuse. If you move around a bit as many young people do, make sure your card has your name, city, email and mobile number, which can all move with you (your postal address and home telephone number, which are tied down to physical locations, are probably unnecessary). You’d do well to pick a conservative design, too.

  Most conferences will provide you with a nametag. If you hold positions with numerous organisations, request that you are listed under your most interesting, relevant role. This is the role which provides the best opportunity to start conversations with other delegates: it should be where you’ve done your most impressive work, and which offers the best opportunities to relate to the experiences of other participants. The details on your nametag will be associated with you during and after the conference, so there is considerable value in getting this correct.

• Networks are the most important outcome
  There is often an eagerness to look for conferences to provide outcomes that are project-based or launchpads to further, collective activity. Generally, this eagerness is misplaced. The most useful conferences bring together people with broad responsibilities, who are often very busy, and unable to commit to further activity. Unless the conference is specifically aimed at producing a project as a result, the most important outcomes will be the informal networks that form between delegates. Go into the conference expecting to meet interesting people and have interesting conversations, rather than with an aim to launch joint projects.
• Know who you want to talk to
  Upon registration, many conferences will provide you with a delegate list, which includes the names, positions and sometimes further biographical information of participants. Read this list, become familiar with it, and know whom you want to talk to. Large conferences are great for serendipitous conversations, but picking a few people who you want to talk to will make for a more productive and interesting experience.
• No one is as inaccessible as you think
  Further to the last point: don’t discount someone just because they hold a senior position within their organisation. Whilst it would be foolish to target a person simply because of their seniority, if you do have a legitimate reason to talk to those with significant responsibility, don’t let yourself talk yourself out of it. Young people are especially prone to negative self-talk when amongst those who are older and who have had more experience, but remember that your selection and participation in the conference means that the people with the best view of it all - the organisers - have chosen you to participate. You have a right to be there, and you are expected to make valuable contributions to the discussion. Don’t be afraid to approach those with senior positions. There is no doubt that they’ve talked to more people with more junior positions than yourself.
• Introductions are easier the sooner you make them
  Breaking conversation circles and introducing yourself cold to the participants is a difficult experience - it makes everyone a little nervous. But remember that if you don’t do it early on, it will only become more difficult as the groups solidify and people begin to become more and more comfortable to those who they’ve already met. The best time to introduce yourself to someone who seems interesting is as soon as possible. Just do it.

Stay tuned for the next five tomorrow!