Article: Writing Conferences

Laptops galore!
April 2010
Vol. 1, Iss. 4

Writing conferences, conventions, and workshops are a staple for the up and coming author. It offers you a chance to meet others like yourself, learn from them, share with them, and above all, nudge up against the people you
really need to know: agents and publishing house editors. It gives you the opportunity to learn about the craft and, hopefully, help you progress along your journey to become published.

In today's economy, attending a writing affair might be out of your reach. It comes down to whether you put gas in your car to get to your nine-to-five job, food on your table, or clothes on the backs of your growing children. And while some organizers have understood this and have shaved the expenses a bit, there are other ways you could possibly attend or at least be able to pull out of a conference/convention/workshop something worthwhile even if you haven't physically attended.

Let's take a look at a conference from last year and all fees associated with attending the conference:
Conference Registration $ 598.00 3 day conference
Membership Discount - 0.00 No membership, DNA
Airfare - roundtrip 237.00 Includes taxes, etc.
Parking @ airport 35.00
Food (not included) 150.00 3 meals/day @$50/day X3
Lodging 555.00 $165/night + 12% taxes, etc.
Signed books 100.00 on a budget!
Drinks with agents 100.00
$1,775.00 Grand Total

Nearly two-grand was shelled out for one person to attend the conference. Now let's say you have a writing group of 4 people. Taking off the signed books and drinks with agents, because no other individual will benefit from these, therefore trimming the bill to a slightly more tolerable $1,575, let's divide that between the 4 people: $394. But it wouldn't exactly be fair to the attendee if s/he was paying as much as those not attending since s/he will be responsible for taking copious notes, transcribing them, and presenting them to the others. If everyone were to pitch in $20 for this, the non-attendees would be paying $414/person and the attendee would be paying $333, having a savings of $60 which could go towards acquiring a few signed books or schmoozing with agents and buying them drinks at the bar.

While a discount, provided with a membership, might help trim expenses too, be certain to do the math. Generally speaking, there's not a big difference in savings.

It will be important for everyone to carefully review the agenda for the conference prior to registering. As you will be sending one individual to represent the group at whole, the course and session attendance should be selected to keep everyone's interests in mind. Be fair and be decisive, be reasonable too. A conference is fast-paced and exhausting. If five sessions a day are being offered, don't expect to get more than two and a half sessions worth of information even if the attendee manages to get all five sessions in.

Other ways to get the benefits of attending a conference without actually going is to set up your Google alerts (http://google.com/alerts) prior to the conference using key words and setting the results to comprehensive so that blogs, news articles, videos, etc. are being sent to your in box. On Twitter, you'll typically find attendees will occasionally live tweet from the conference and use hashmarks (#) when doing so (not everyone remembers) which you can set up via Twitter or even Google Reader (http://google.com/reader) and read through the comments being posted via that service. The benefits, however, are not always as great and you're running the risk of not getting correct information.

Check out the conference website and look to see who is presenting and get a list of workshop leaders. Look for the presenter's website, blog, and on-line social networking pages including Facebook and Twitter. Bookmark their sites and check back frequently, especially during the conference. Often you will find that these individuals will post information that was being shared during the conference and sometimes will remove it afterwards as it was only intended to supplement their presentations.

The longer running conferences and workshops have found that it's financially advantageous to sell the audio recordings made during the conference from select sessions, upwards to a year after the conference. PNWA currently has on sale the tapes from their 2009 conference with a select number of the sessions available. For less than $60 and without having to have a membership, you can have all 12 recordings (which does not cover even half of the sessions during those four days) delivered to you. This is an excellent value and a great alternative.

Consider joining a local writing association. While at a much smaller scale, often these associations will conduct workshops and invite guest speakers that are beneficial to attend. Even if you don't join, you may still be able to attend at a slightly higher charge. If you find yourself attending several throughout the year, why not consider a membership to help cut your expenses?

There is no true way to get the benefits of a conference without actually attending it. But these are some possible ways to help you look for alternative ways to get some information during a time when money matters more than ever.

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