Solo professionals and work-at-home business owners can easily become lonely and feel isolated from the outside world. As human beings, we crave communication with others and so it's important for business owners to get out to live events, regardless of your business model.

I attended my first ever live full weekend event for my business last summer. The night before the event began I was fortunate to have been invited to attend a teleseminar put on by Kevin Nations and Gary Ambrose that shared strategies for attending and getting the best results from live events.

The teleseminar was more like a conversation between Kevin and Gary, but I asked some pointed questions in order to get the answers I needed. After all - time was of the essence! I was headed to my first event in a few short hours. After listening to Kevin Nations and Gary Ambrose, both seasoned conference presenters, I was able to determine nine strategies for having success at live events. Here they are:

1. Make friends with those who connect well with others and take time with them on a personal level.

2. Be fully present. Don't be working on other projects, checking email, or looking around for the next "big name" to tackle. Just be where you are.

3. Know what you offer the world in terms of what the outcome is.

4. In each presentation, look for information that you can apply to your business, even if the presenter's products and services are not exactly what you need. There is learning in every situation. Find it.

5. Go with an agenda. My agenda at my first event was to find an expert more successful than I was to help me look at the architecture of my business and find the missing pieces.

6. Understand the missing pieces in your business before you go and while you are at that event, get access to one or more of those pieces.

7. After the event, sit down and make a plan for yourself based on all the information you learned.

8. Be somebody who makes dinner plans. Be the "inviter." Get a new small group of people together each evening and get to know others. By the final night, people will be seeking you out.

9. Go to the event ready to share some of your "secrets." When you are willing to share your ideas, people will reciprocate. You'll also get exposure to others in a different way. And you may find yourself being introduced to an influential person because someone heard your details, liked what they heard and thought their influential friend might also be interested.