Respecting the Writer's Conference - Case Study: Missouri Writers Guild Conference

I speak at writer's conference several times a year. Next year, when the Carolina Slade suspense series is released by Bell Bridge Books, I've planned to visit a few more conferences from Oklahoma to Chicago to North Carolina, Iowa and more. These events (and the people who mold them) never fail to impress me. 


To give you an idea of the gumption, sweat and diligence it takes to pull off such events, I asked Deborah Marshall, president of the Missouri Writers Guild, to explain what's involved with making a writer's conference appear seamless. She's one of the hardest working writer's advocate I know, and I'm sure you'll realize why once you enjoy her interview. 


HOPE:  Deb, we met online for months before the Missouri Writers Guild Annual Conference finally took place in April 2011. How far ahead of a conference's opening day do you start working to put it together? Your conference ran slick as silk.


DEB: Thank you, Hope.  Conference planning is much like a wedding, so as soon as you know it's going to happen, the planning begins.  I started asking questions of the hotel before I left the 2010 conference.  I believe our conference ran as smoothly as it did for two reasons.  It's impossible to be everywhere at once during a large event with so many people, so I had a great "right-hand person" who shouldered a lot of responsibility during the conference.  Nobody who plans a conference does it alone, so Tricia's knew nearly all the details, or the contact information of people who could.  It enabled Tricia to prepare to become the 2012 Conference Chair.  Secondly, I learned to play the "If" game right away. "If Speaker A cancels, who do I have as a back-up?"  "If we wind up with 100 people instead of the 150 I'm planning for, can we still break even?" "If we have 250 registrants, do we have a place to put them?"  I tried to plan for as many possibilities as givens.   


HOPE: You landed noted mystey novelist Elaine Viets (www.elaineviets.com) , a well as NY Times Bestselling novelist Nancy Pickard and literary agent biggee Kristin Nelson, to mention just a few. The list was great. How do you decide who to invite, and how many do you invite to boil it down to the final selection?


DEB:  I created criteria for potential speakers.  First, I considered nationally-recognized speakers with ties to Missouri, since we're a state organization.  Elaine Viets is a native of St. Louis and had a tremendous readership as a columnist for many years prior to launching her two mystery series.  She enjoys a strong following in St. Louis and is extremely entertaining, so she was selected as keynote.  Since the only advice I was given was to "find speakers you would like to hear," I contacted Nancy Pickard, who not only received accolades for "The Scent of Rain and Lightning" at the time I contacted her, but was also a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.  Kristin Nelson is a very strong agent whose pitch schedules fill up fast, but she is also from St. Louis.  Thanks to the Internet, it's possible to see which speakers attend a lot of conferences and if they typically speak near you.  Taking the time to do research, networking through Facebook and Twitter and following writers' blogs really pay off.


What makes this speaker noteworthy?  Can he or she fill more than one space in my program?  Does this speaker have a strong online presence?  Is the speaker's topic timely and fit our program?  Is it geared for beginning or established writers or both?  Is it a craft or business topic?  Is the agent or editor open to queries?  What kind of writing is the agent/editor looking for?  Will he or she lead a breakout?  Speakers filling the majority of the criteria were offered a contract, providing we were able to negotiate terms that fit our budget.


In your case, I had additional criteria, since I was specifically searching for a nationally-recognized expert with a strong online presence who would attract writers to a pre-conference seminar to eliminate the tendency for attendees to just come for pitches or workshops for a single day.  Not only did it help us establish a strong program, from a planner's standpoint, a pre-conference seminar helped to fill hotel rooms, which translates in many hotel contracts into more dollars for additional speakers our writers want to hear and greater discounts on meeting room space.  From our evaluations, it appears this was a successful maneuver, since the majority of our conference attendees were present for what they considered a very informative, worthwhile kick-off to our conference.  Some of our attendees came because they knew you were going to be speaking in the Midwest and drove quite a distance to join us.  As a result of this, writers who attended our conference had a much broader and very valuable networking experience.  We ended up having writers from more than a dozen states!  


HOPE: I had a grand time, too. The event was quite successful. I imagine there's a lot of holding your breath as you juggle so many balls in the air.What do you start with first, second, and so on?


DEB: The Missouri Writers' Guild Conference is a weekend conference held in April each year, generally in the city where the conference chairperson resides.  I had to consider the dates for Easter, Passover and Palm Sunday, as well as the dates for other conferences that our Missouri writers might plan to attend.  I started looking at hotels easily accessible by highway and airport.  Selecting a venue requires a location with adequate meeting space, comfortable, affordable hotel rooms, great food, and restaurants nearby for those times when people just need to get away from the crowd.
Agents and editors are the big draw for writing conferences and their schedules fill up fast, so I sought agents and editors to hear pitches on Saturday, considering whether they would present breakouts or workshops in addition to hearing pitches.  


Multi-tasking is essential. I established a budget, registration fees and preparing a publicity schedule while negotiating speaker contracts and keeping up emails.  Then there's the Saturday night' awards banquet and rounding out the program schedule with networking time. Then there's herding volunteers. 


HOPE: How many "helpers" does it take to plan and run a conference like this?


DEB: A conference is a perfect example of the adage "the more the merrier."  Ideally, every chairperson needs a right-hand person.  Other key personnel serve as shepherds for speakers, organizers for events like networking time, which we called "Nightcaps", the bookstore, and open mic.  Then, we have the annual contests and the organizers for those.  In a perfect world, 75-80 helpers assist with a weekend conference.  You wind up with about half of that number.  Some of the best advice I can give conference organizers is to make sure there are enough helpers to make things run smoothly, but be sure volunteers also have the time to attend the workshops, pitches and other events they want to enjoy. 


HOPE: You had over 300 attendees at the 2011 conference. That's a lot of herding, I imagine, but you made it look seamless. Did you have any horror stories behind the scenes that you dare to share?


DEB: I prefer to think of them as "interesting little anecdotes."  For instance, agent Kathleen Ortiz was Missing In Action right after her arrival in St. Louis, despite tweeting she had landed.  Her shepherd, Sarah Whitney and I were at the airport, welcome signs in hand, when her plane arrived just before midnight Thursday night.  Somehow she slipped past us and wound up on the final shuttle back to the hotel.  
Then, we wound up with so many people coming to the conference that the hotel had to spread out our breakout rooms to a conference center on a lower level.  This left us with people having quite a hike between sessions and little time to spare.  It's not much fun to arrive at a breakout breathless and without time for a bathroom break.  The only other faux pas was the hotel's AV staff removing the microphone from the Open Mic room. 


HOPE: What have you learned from the experience of chairing a conference?


DEB: I have witnessed the overwhelming power of the Internet and how it can drive your event's success.  I took my first baby steps into social networking when I started the conference.  Now, I'm a believer.  I was able to research potential speakers by learning about them online, visiting their blogs and following them on Facebook.  Potential agents and editors can be checked out by visiting Preditors and Editors. Most importantly, I also discovered that most members of the writing community are willing to share their experience and are tremendously supportive of other writers.  Few will close their doors to you if you've done your homework, then take the initiative to knock. 


HOPE: What do you recommend to writers as they try to decide which conferences to put on their schedule for 2012?


DEB: It's important to shop for 2012 conferences before 2011 ends.  Many offer early-bird registration fees with significant savings.  If you have completed work that you would like to pitch, look for conferences with agents and editors looking for writers in your genre. 
If you crave to develop your writing career, seek a conference with speakers with that information.  If a writer wants information about the writing craft, then search for workshops by accomplished writers.  There are too many professional experts out there for you to spend your hard-earned dollars to attend a conference with a costly registration fee and wind up hearing speakers you could have heard at the local library or writing group.  From my experience, a conference offering a blend of craft and writing business workshops seems to offer a good balance for most writers. If you're interested in entering contests, find those conferences offering contests as well. Weed out the ones you can't afford to attend.  Mark a calendar with the dates.  Finally, ask around to find someone to share the cost of driving or sharing a hotel room once you're ready to commit.


HOPE: As the conference chair, how much does your own writing suffer the year before a conference?


DEB: Planning a conference is a full-time commitment, so the toll on a writer's career is drastic.  I spent less than ten percent of my working hours on my own writing for a year, but it was worth it.  I love the writing workshop experience and find them extremely beneficial.  I made fantastic contacts and now have a collection of business cards and a list that most writers would love to have.  My writing suffered dramatically, but my writing career benefited greatly. 


NOTE: What has impressed you about a writer's conference? What has depressed you? How do you select your conference(s) each year? Money, speakers, networking, old friends, name-brand agents?