There are many great technical events and conferences throughout the year. Now, maybe you’re sold on the idea of going to one of these conferences. But how do you get the boss to agree it would be a good idea for you to attend?

After all, there’s the cost of attendance, possibly travel and accommodation expenses, and there’s also the time off away from your “real” job. How would you sell the idea to the boss?

Fortunately, someone smart at IBM realised that getting approval to attend its events can be difficult, so they prepared a marvelous template you can use to help your case.

Convince Your Boss is a one-pager, showing you how to show your manager what’s to be gained by turning up to one of these events.

This handy little document provides a shortlist of what the event could do for your business, your team, and yourself personally. It explains you get:

• The latest product announcements
• “How-to” technical classes, labs and workshops
• Panel discussions about real-world IT challenges
• And an opportunity to network with peers, IBM clients and senior IBM leaders
• Onsite certification testing at a reduced rate

I’ve often come across IT specialists who say things like: “I don’t know how to sell myself”, or “I hate the idea of selling.” It would be a pity if that was enough reason not to put forward the case for going to valuable conferences.

This easy-to-follow template from IBM is a great way to address that. It’s only a single page, so not too burdensome to complete, or too long for the boss to have to read before approving you to go to the event.