Survey for national conference
I've recently received notice from HQ on our programs for the national
convention. I'm going to start soliciting panelists in the next few
weeks. FYI, if you plan to be in Chicago Aug. 24-26, let me know. In
the interest of full disclosure: there are no stipends paid for these
speaking engagements and you'll be responsible for your own travel and
accommodations. Please let me know your qualifications and expertise if
you're offering to be a speaker. That will help with the triage of
selecting speakers.
One freelance program at the convention is "How
to Market Yourself as a Freelancer: A practical discussion about
collateral, Web sites, blogs, online archive of clips, public speaking,
teaching and more!
The other selected by HQ out of a list I sent for consideration was "Freelancing for Beginners."
People
are always asking me about how to get started freelancing. But I know a
lot of the regional conventions have addressed this topic this year.
And after soliciting info from you for the database, I see that many
are quite experienced. My dilemma is to ensure that our programming is
relevant to our members.
Please let me know -- either by
responding here or in an e-mail -- if you think a "getting started"
program is a good idea, or if we should tackle something more
sophisticated.
Here's a list of the other ideas submitted for
consideration that were brainstormed at our committee meeting at the
Las Vegas convention last October:
• Elements of a Successful Query: Bring an idea and market you’d like to pitch and we’ll workshop the query.
• Editors are from Venus, Freelancers are from Mars: Panel discussion with editors and freelancers on how we can better work together.
• Self-Esteem 101: Face it we’re needy, so how do we deal with rejection, feedback or lack thereof, isolation and negotiation?
• Freelance Niches: Making the most of your writing with specific topics or publications such as trade magazines and newsletters.
And
finally, I was thinking it might be fun to have a Freelance Happy Hour
somewhere in Chicago. Anyone interested in a fun couple of hours with
your comrades?