Its lunch time at the launch of Google Engage in South Africa – and I thought to share tips on gate crashing registration/invitation only events.
These worked!
Have a strong desire to attend: with a strong desire you are motivated to do whatever it takes (in my case without breaking any state or international laws) to get what you want.
Register still: yes, registration is closed but the registration forms are still live (who knows they might not have reached the total number of guests they can cater for and are too proud to say so, so they leave the form open for, well, the daring)
Be confident: ask permissions of your superiors and colleagues so that isn’t in the way
Be presentable, respectable, impressive…: don’t forget you have no invitation, so you need to be as presentable, respectable, impressive… as you can afford (I didn’t rob the shops to look the role), such that it will be too difficult for the beautiful ladies at the registration desk to say: ‘sorry, we have no record of your participation’; but: ‘ welcome sir, please go this way…
Participate: well the morning session (which I targeted was insightful in part because I listened to the speakers and stuck my eyes to the screen and my phone was swithed to ‘super silent’)
The only side effect? I got an handwritten name tag – but what does that matter?
The one sure way to make invitations only events is to comply with all of the organisers stipulated conditions.
Gate crashing using my tips should only be a last resort and only when you are totally unable to negotiate with organisers to still extend you an invite or allow you register – in my case there was no organisers contact details.
