The Conference, a perspective

I tried to describe The Conference to someone the other day. The size (over 2000 attendees), the handful of mini-conferences attached, several awards ceremonies, fancy dinners, and a massive booksigning. Booksellers, librarians, editors, publishers, agents, publicists, web designers and more — it’s a networking extravaganza. In an industry where an overwhelming percentage of the players work in a solitary home-office environment and communicate almost exclusively over email and through blogs, the face-to-face component is huge.

1996 was my first RWA National Conference. I was up for a Golden Heart in long historical (I didn’t win). The conference was in Dallas and I had enough time between workshops to field trip to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. This was before almost any authors had websites, and I hadn’t yet joined a local RWA group. I knew very few other attendees.

A finalist again for the GH with my second manuscript (I didn’t win again), I went back to conference in 1998. I knew many more people; I had joined my local RWA group and I was much more active (for the time) on email with other authors. Nevertheless, I still had plenty of time during the conference to catch rays by the pool.

1999 was the last conference I missed. By 2000 I had shelved fiction writing for technical writing and designing websites, and I even gave a workshop on the topic. By 2002 (Denver) my conference days were filled with client meetings. It was my once-a-year chance to reconnect face-to-face with “my” authors and find out about their new exciting projects and brainstorm together. I could share en masse, albeit individually, new strategies I had developed to self-promote and keep up with the rapidly evolving web. Together we would plan their year. Except for 2003 in New York City where I scheduled additional days on either side to do some museuming, I have barely left the hotels in the years since then.

And I look forward to doing it again this year — meeting with over two dozen authors, this year for the first time with Abi alongside. I look forward to seeing friends, and meeting people in person whom I only know over email. Busy as all get out or with time to sightsee, I love the reconnect.

See you all in San Francisco!