The reMarkable Paper Pro or reMarkable 2 make excellent companions for attending business conferences. Their light weight, easy form factor, and ability to organize your notes can significantly increase your productivity
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We also recently wrote a related article on how to use the reMarkable 2 or reMarkable Paper Pro to keep your non-profit work organized.
Prepare for conference attendance on your reMarkable Paper Pro or reMarkable 2
Prior planning can maximize your limited time at a business conference. reMarkable Paper Pro and reMarkable 2 are both perfect for being an effective thought partner in your conference preparation. I’ve found that a bit of planning for a conference can really go a long way.
A couple ways that you can use your reMarkable to prepare for a conference include:
- Markup a PDF map of the conference grounds
- Sketch out a schedule for the day to hit the most important sessions
- List out people or companies that you’d like to talk to
- Document your travel arrangements (e.g., hotel, car, flights, train)
- Prepare sales or capability presentations to share with perspective clients (more on that below)
- Create a new notebook (with a fun cover)
As long as you sync your reMarkable tablet, you’ll have all of your notes with you throughout the conference.
Taking notes during plenary or breakout sessions
How many random slips of paper do you have from business conferences where you took notes on the hotel stationary? I’ve always found that this is better than not taking notes, but turns out to be a hard way to permanently capture your learnings.
Enter the reMarkable 2 or the reMarkable Paper Pro! I love using my reMarkable during conferences as I can create a new Notebook for the conference to stay organized. Then I can easily take notes on different pages as I attend sessions. This also has the added benefit of keeping my laptop in my bag to avoid getting distracted.
Conferences are expensive to attend, so remaining highly attentive has many benefits. Taking written notes will allow you to better commit ideas to memory and avoiding your laptop keeps you focused on the attendees.
Recording follow ups during business conferences
I attended an industry conference in Germany last summer and I found that keeping a separate page was a great way to not miss critical action items. During the semi-random interactions throughout the conference, I’d take small to-do’s on this page.
On my fight home from the trade show, I worked through my list of action items. This allowed me to maximize the usefulness of the conference and kept me organized.
Carrying and collecting business cards at conferences
Between long days of walking venues and armfuls of swag / samples, I find it best to minimize what I carry at trade shows. With the right reMarkable cover, your reMarkable tablet can double as a place to store collected business cards. I’ve found that the designs of different reMarkable 2 and reMarkable Paper Pro covers vary on their usefulness for this task:
- reMarkable Book Folio – not great for the task, but can work in a pinch (you’ll be putting cards on top of the screen)
- reMarkable Type Folio – a little better, but still not great for carrying cards. You could put cards in collapsible portion of the keyboard
- CoBak reMarkable Cover – similar to the OEM Book Folio in that you could put an emergency card or two behind the screen or keep them atop the screen (with some risk of loss)
- KuRoKo reMarkable Cover – the KuRoKo reMarkable cover actually performs the best because of it’s folding design. I’ve used this reMarkable case at many events and found the fold behind the screen as a great place to store business cards.
- Larger leather folios – these are likely the best for using as a single item carry at conferences and trade shows. The extra pockets on the D&M Leather Folio are perfect for carrying your own cards and having a place for business cards you receive.
For more on reMarkable Paper Pro and reMarkable 2 covers – check out our summary of reMarkable cover options.
Scribbling ideas that occur during conferences on reMarkable
One of the more important aspects of attending industry events is the ideas and inspiration you draw from it. I use a page in my dedicated trade show notebook to record ideas and questions that come up throughout the event. This is everything from seeing an innovative product to hearing a name of a competitor that I’m not familiar with.
If you don’t write these ideas down in the moment, they’ll likely be lost forever. That’s why I carry my reMarkable tablet with me during trade shows and take a quick moment to jot the idea down.
After the industry event, I review my reMarkable notes and see which are worth following up on and which can be discarded.
Carrying sales presentations for reference or presentation
One of my favorite features of the reMarkable tablets (2 and Paper Pro) is the ability to carry PDFs of PowerPoint or Keynote presentations on the device. In my opinion, this capability is the end all differentiation from paper notebooks.
During a business conference, informal conversations happen all the time. And ideally, some of these conversations lead to more serious discussions about business. In these circumstances, having a capabilities briefing or other pitch deck can be really useful.
Enter reMarkable Paper Pro or reMarkable 2!
I’ve found that having even a single reference page to discuss with a potential client or collaborator can really open up a conversation. Also, the uniqueness of the reMarkable tablets also seems to make these conversations really memorable.
Stay productive on other tasks during a conference with reMarkable Paper Pro
As a leader or executive, time away from day-to-day management of the team always means sacrifices. Bringing my reMarkable tablet with me helps me decrease the dip in productivity during these important trips. I try to balance being present at the event (to maximize the value) while also keeping high value activities moving with my team. Below are a couple ideas to stay productive during trade shows:
- Sign documents on reMarkable – I love signing digital documents on my reMarkable because I can easily email them back. I’ve used my reMarkable to sign NDAs, contracts, and other important documents while on the move.
- Maintain to do list & schedule on reMarkable – Just because you’re at a trade show, it doesn’t mean that other business functions stop. Even at conferences, I use my daily practice of a reMarkable 1-page smart sheet to organize meetings and tasks.
- Expert Interviews – you never know who you’re going to run into. The reMarkable can keep your thoughts and preparation organized for conducting an expert interview.
- Review team work product on reMarkable – if you have a team that’s creating Powerpoint or other presentations, using your reMarkable to review can be a distraction-free method.
