For many years, I never bothered to check the brochures and free tickets offered to attend an investment or business seminar that arrived in the mail. In 2004, when I was venturing into different business options, I got 2 free tickets to attend an Internet related seminar. It was about internet marketing, SEO and e-commerce websites. Being a software professional, I was drawn to it and decided to check it out.

That changed everything. It was worth a try and it was worth my time too. I was exposed to some pretty cool stuff that I never knew about as a techie guy. I learned a lot of new things about search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and other aspects of how to rank high in search engines. It was actually a revelation for me. Maybe I could have learned them all by reading a few books, but it could have taken me months. I wouldn’t have known where to start in the first place and I wouldn’t have experienced it. With the experience I got from that seminar, I researched and implemented some SEO techniques on my websites and got very good results. That was just a half day seminar and I was amazed at the impact of the free crash course.

After that seminar, my perspective towards free seminars changed and I started looking closely at free seminar offers before throwing them away to see if it was worth a few hours to earn something or not.

What are these Investment/Business seminars about?

These half-day or one-day seminars are organized by different organizations that are investing institutions or teaching institutions contracted by them. They organize these seminars in big 3-4 star hotels in many big cities every month, mainly from spring to fall season.

His motivation behind it is to attract people interested in business/investment ideas and spark interest by throwing out attractive figures and numbers, hoping to lure you into 3-5 day workshops. That is your ultimate goal to make money. They hope that if 50 people attend a session and at least 20 sign up, that would be enough to make it profitable. Sometimes wealth management companies and brokerage firms also conduct seminars directly to explain their products and services.

Why should I go?

Are you a stock/bond investor or aspiring investor?

Are you thinking of earning some extra money by starting a new business or do you want to do something different?

If your answer is “Yes”, you better start attending these free seminars that match your interests and goals. Think of it as a free crash course. It is so effective than reading books all day. Next question, you can ask if it will be worth my time. I can assure you that it will surely be worth your time in the long run. But only choose to go to seminars that match your interest. If you’ve been thinking about investing in stocks and funds, visit our stock trading seminars. If you want to learn more about real estate investing, attend seminars hosted by such organizations.

Give me some or at least 5 reasons to attend these seminars.

I can list many reasons, but there are 5 important reasons/advantages to attend these types of seminars.

1. Free education

I will not say, you will learn everything. But you will surely learn some good and dirty tricks. You should be able to get some tips and books that might help you know where to start. You can choose a certain seminar topic and do further research to learn the intricacies that will surely help you in your trading or future endeavors.

2. Learn new tricks

Even if you are professional and knowledgeable in your field, you can still learn some fun tricks from these seminars. I never knew of a good property value website until I attended a real estate seminar. I got to know a lot of great hacks and decent websites just by attending these seminars. I didn’t know how real estate trading or wholesale worked. Thanks to these seminars. Many seminars are really organized with entertaining and well-prepared materials to create interest among the audience and attract them to sign up. You will surely enjoy it.

3. Free materials

You might be lucky enough to get some free giveaways and offers at these seminars. These freebies like CDs and books are worth getting, even if the seminar doesn’t live up to your expectations. One tricky thing, try to sit in the front rows so you can hurry up and take advantage of these freebies if offered.

4. Networking

These seminars provide a great ground to talk and network with like-minded people. You may even end up learning from and associating with those who attend these seminars.

5. Tax advantage

Last but not the lease, did you know that you can write off the time spent and vehicle mileage to attend these seminars on your tax returns? Especially if you own a business or file a self-employment tax return, you can claim them as business expenses. This is really a nice kick to compliment all the professionals who attend these seminars.

I hope these 5 reasons will convince you to attend these seminars and workshops. I will also talk more about the do’s and don’ts in my next post and share some experiences on the new trend in the seminar, webinar and webcast industry. Watch out…