Well, it’s conference time and that means it’s time to look at the benefits of conferences again. You can’t afford NOT to go!
Yes, there is a financial investment. Yes, there’s a time investment. Yes, it can be scary. But I know that I know that I know that if I had not started attending writers conferences, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I’ve had so far as a writer and speaker.
Here are some conference highlights of my writing journey: 
1. Edie Melson and I met as unpublished writers at the 2001 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference…and discovered we lived about three miles from each other! We’ve been best writing buds, critique partners, and cohorts of many projects since. And now we have the joy to being on faculty together at writers conferences all over the country.
2. I met faculty member John Riddle at a writers conference and he opened my eyes to the possibility of writing magazine articles.
3. I sold my first article to Clubhouse Magazine over breakfast at a writers conference.
4. I met the editor of HomeLife Magazine (LifeWay) at a conference, submitted a query, and promptly received a rejection. But read here about how three other editors at LifeWay ended up contacting me and asking me to write for their magazines, including the new editor at HomeLife! And just to let you know, a few months after I wrote that post in the link, the editor of ParentLife contacted me about writing for them…so now that makes FOUR LifeWay magazines–all because I met the editor at a conference.
5. I met an agent at a conference and got to know him through several years of attending. But by the time I had a publishable proposal, he was no longer agenting, BUT…he referred me to another agent who liked my work and signed me up!
6. I met the editor of Regal Books, the publishing house that eventually contracted Seeing Through the Lies: Unmasking the Myths Women Believe, at a conference. And even though that meeting didn’t assure the contract, I believe that face-to-face meeting gave me the opportunity to show my passion for and belief in the project in a way that couldn’t have happened otherwise.
7. Many of my speaking opportunities have come from friends I’ve met at conferences, from PA to FL to NM to TX to DE and more!
And the opportunities don’t end when you become a faculty member:
8. One year I met an editor when we were both faculty at a conference. When she needed a work-for-hire writer in one of my specialties, we talked seriously about my doing it, but finally decided our schedules wouldn’t work. But that’s a door that’s now open.
9. The Christian Communicators Conference grew from requests from women after taking my continuing class at writers conferences, How to Develop a Speaking Ministry to Women. We’re currently full for our 2013 Conference in August but we’d be happy to put you on our waiting list. Just let me know.
10. The more I attend and teach at conferences, the more opportunities I have to teach or speak at others!
Gideon Interns 2011
11. And because of meeting Rodney and Lori Marett at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, I was asked to be co-director of the Gideon Media Arts Conference and Film Fesitval Intern Progam for Teens. Registration is open and applications are now being accepted for the July conference in Orlando.
See what I mean? And guess what–you could have your own stories to tell about how God’s divine appointments and successes came together because of writers conferences.
Yes, you may be gifted as a writer. Yes, you may have grammar and punctuation down to a science. Yes, you may be so creative that you’ll never run out of ideas. But nothing can replace the education, friends, and connections that can only come from attending a writers conference.
So, what are you waiting for?
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Who Won Gina Holmes’ Book?
Joy! Congratulations, Joy. All you need to do is Contact Me with your snail mail address and your book will be on its way!
And for everybody else, don’t forget you can get your on copies of Gina’s books here: Wings of Glass, Dry as Rain, and Crossing Oceans.
Hope to see you at a conference this year!
Vonda
