Before

You would know if you are attending a conference way before the actual conference. For students, you would probably have written a paper and had it accepted.

During

After

• Do Tutorials!
• Do Workshops!
• In workshops, since there are lesser number of people, dont leave the room in coffee breaks and directly go talk to paper presenters and keynote presenters
• In main conference sessions, come early, sit in the front, see presenters’ faces clearly, see where they sit after presenting, go talk to them immediately after session. Maybe join lunch/coffee.
• Talk to all companies, ask them for external party/mixer invites ON THE FIRST DAY.
• CHECK EMAIL always. Make sure to receive notifications for mixer invites immediately.
• Attend ALL poster sessions. Make personal connections with presenters.
• Randomly say hi to people and start talking.
• Read all paper abstracts before conference, read full papers of the very relevant ones if available, stalk the authors you want to talk to beforehand, remember their faces, and keep a note of when and where they are going to be during the conference
• Meet more grad students, have lunch/dinner with them
• Take pics of posters, take slide pics. Also make note of how awesome people are presenting, how their slides are formatted, and how much they put in slides vs speak.