I was a bit brief on tactics. Yes. Don't just ask for a referral. Tactics: Understand that they are there to recruit. This should give you confidence. This is

I was a bit brief on tactics. Yes. Don't just ask for a referral. Tactics: Understand that they are there to recruit. This should give you confidence. This isn't some weird game, you're not manipulating or tricking them. They are here for these conversations. Some soft-skill tactics don't work for everyone. If some/none of the below materializes or isn't your thing, it's alway okay to ask. "Are you doing any recruiting while in town? I'm interested in talking to someone at NeatCo." If you can speak at the conference, that is preferable. If not, walking up and saying hi will work but it should involve you asking a well-informed question about the thing they are speaking about. Spend an hour before the conference researching their topic and come with something in mind: What lead company X to create Y? If someone were motivated, could they create ${interesting but not crazy new feature/thing} using Y? If you don't have a question, just talk about the content of the talk. Tell them what you thought. The person speaking on behalf of NeatCo will often bring another person with them. The speaker is the domain expert, the other person will often be someone capable of hiring. If they bring a +1, talk to that person as well. The goal of your chat is to get any of: dinner invite, next-day coffee, straight up ad-hoc interview.