Justify Your Attendance

Budget constraints remain common in many organizations. These strategies can help you secure approval more effectively:

• Tie your organizational goals to specific sessions, speakers, or strategic topics. Clearly identify how InfoNEXT sessions and executive discussions align with your department’s priorities—such as modernization, regulatory changes, digital transformation, or enterprise risk reduction.

• Offer to deliver a structured debrief upon your return. Commit to sharing high-level insights, frameworks, and recommended next steps with leadership and your team. This demonstrates multiplier value for the entire organization.

• Highlight materials you’ll bring back. Attendees have access to session decks for a limited time after the event, making your learnings actionable and shareable.

• If you’re maintaining or pursuing professional credentials, emphasize CEU efficiency. InfoNEXT offers eligibility for IGP, CRA, CRM and additional partner-organization credits (pending pre-approval). Earning CEUs at a single event often costs less and requires less time away from the office than multiple smaller trainings.

• Identify business partners and solution providers exhibiting at InfoNEXT. If your organization is evaluating tools or platforms, highlight which vendors will be present, what you plan to learn, and how it can inform procurement decisions.

• Explain the value of networking at the executive level. Connections forged at InfoNEXT can lead to collaborations, benchmarking opportunities, shared best practices, and new partnerships that strengthen your organizational posture.

• Ask the critical question: “What is the cost of NOT attending?” Missing vital insights into emerging regulations, AI governance, evolving IG frameworks, and enterprise risk trends may leave your organization vulnerable or behind the curve.

• Prepare a coverage plan. Demonstrate foresight by outlining how your responsibilities will be managed while you're attending the conference.

At some point before or after submitting your formal request, you’ll have about 60 seconds to articulate why attending InfoNEXT is essential. Prepare a tight, executive-ready pitch aligned with your organization’s strategy.

Your pitch should reflect:

• Strategic impact:
  How InfoNEXT supports organizational priorities such as compliance, risk mitigation, governance modernization, digital transformation, or operational efficiency.

• Professional development:
  The concentrated, high-level programming designed specifically for leaders shaping IG at the enterprise level.

• Organizational ROI:
  Frameworks, tools, and insights you will bring back and immediately apply to current or upcoming initiatives.

• Networking & partnerships:
  The unique value of connecting with senior peers across industries who are solving similar challenges.

• Knowledge sharing:
  Your plan to recap and distribute key takeaways to colleagues post-event, extending the benefit beyond your individual attendance.

Elevator Pitch Talking Points

• InfoNEXT provides concentrated, strategic programming designed for senior IG leaders focused on improving governance maturity, reducing risk, and preparing for emerging regulatory and technological shifts.

• I’ll connect with executive-level peers, exchange strategies, and benchmark our organization's progress against similar sectors.

• I will bring back actionable frameworks and insights to immediately strengthen our IG initiatives and support our enterprise goals.

• Attending is significantly more cost-effective than pursuing CEUs, training, and leadership development through multiple separate programs.

• The relationships and knowledge gained will directly support long-term organizational resilience and strategic alignment.

Source inspiration: Mike Doyle, “How to Justify Conference Attendance” (adapted for executive audiences)