It's in the Bag!

Today, the 21st annual SCWW Writers' Conference is history. As the conference ended yesterday, I heard enough feedback to say with reasonable certainty that it was a good one. Many of you told me that this year's was one of the best, citing our excellent faculty. We have Carrie McCullough, Conference Chair, to thank for that - along with just about every other detail pertaining to planning this event. Please give Carrie a round of applause for the outstanding job she performed all year.

Of course the conference couldn’t have been as successful without the efforts of Kia Goins, Conference Co-Chair, (volunteer, vendor, sponsor coordination and ace all-round problem solving) and Kim Blum-Hyclak, Silent Auction Chair. They worked like Trojans to make Conference 2011 an enjoyable, informative, seamless and financially-viable endeavor.

Then there are the 20 volunteers that gave up a good portion of their conference time to insure that attendees were comfortable and on time to their specific sessions and appointments. This was accomplished with smiles and enthusiasm. In addition, there were many behind-the-scene chores shouldered by these members. Good volunteers are the oil that makes the gears of an organization turn smoothly, and this weekend our conference machinery operated with premium-grade WD40TM.

Here’s a big thanks to each member of our faculty members who took time away from their busy lives to share their knowledge and expertise. They didn’t make a great deal of money, had to rearrange their work schedules and dealt with the annoyances of travel in order to be with us. We were fortunate to snag them.

I have a quote from an email I received this morning. “I sat beside a writer from NY Saturday night and I asked him how he discovered our conference. He found it online, a site that reviewed conferences in the USA and ours was listed as NUMBER ONE!”

Also, I spoke with an attendee an hour ago who said, “I am busy putting to work some of the things I learned this past weekend. I expect better results than I’ve had.”

On Sunday morning, an 18-year-old man stopped to pass on his thanks to SCWW and our annual conferences. He said he had been attending them since he was 15 years old and owed his writing career to SCWW.

And lastly, a lady paused at the door as she was leaving the conference when I asked her if she’d enjoyed her weekend. She placed her hand over her heart and with a blissful expression sighed, “I have been inspired.”

If you couldn’t be with us this year, start planning to attend the 22nd annual SCWW Writers' Conference, November 2-4, 2012. I’ll see you there.