How are you using your staff during conferences? Beyond the usual greeters and coat checkers, there’s a far more important role your staff can play.

That and more in today’s Lunchtime Links:

Team work: While there are many roles staff members have to play at a conference, it may be most important for staff to get out there on the conference floor and just talk. “When your constituency knows your staff personally they feel a stronger connection to the whole group,” Thom Singer of Trade Show News Network says. So let the staff mingle and be a real part of the conference for the best results. Have you tried this method out? How have the staff—and participants—reacted?

Free for all: How many times have you come back from a conference and unloaded a bag full of kitschy buttons and zipper pulls? Have you ever thought to yourself: Who really swaps out their zipper pulls? If you’re rethinking your swag strategy, there are some key tips to keep in mind from the people over at EventDay. What’s your top giveaway at conferences?

Mad skills: Don Draper can sure teach you a lot. Besides how to dress sharp and pour the best Old Fashioned, the “Mad Men” character knows an awful lot about networking. Inc. covers his best tips in an article called “Why You Should Schmooze Like Don Draper,” which touts old-school methods that are (supposedly) tried and true. Some ideas: Order all the desserts and act like a tourist, no matter what city you’re in. What works for you while networking? (And speaking of “Mad Men,” check out this Draper-inspired version of Google, which shows what it might look like in the 1960s. Hint: punch cards.)

Head of the class: You may think you need an association background to lead one effectively. The chief learning officer of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) thinks differently. Having come from a business background, she took her no-fuss entrepreneurial skills to the association, taking the traditional version of the annual meeting and turning it into “an intelligent learning system that breeds value,” according to an article from Fast Company. You’ll learn from her cost-saving measures and high standards of accountability across the board.

What are you reading over lunch? Let us know in the comments.

(iStockPhoto/Thinkstock)