Six weeks ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, I was all set to sign a contract with a beautiful hotel here in Malmö, Sweden, and host the first WRITE NOW! Workshop Writers Conference. My, how things change.
While hosting live, in-person events has become questionable on many levels for the rest of this year, more and more people are getting used to meeting online simply because it’s the only way to connect right now. For that reason, I decided not to cancel my conference, but to simply recreate it as an amazing online experience.
But if it’s going to have to change anyway, what else could we do to make the conference even more amazing?! I thought I’d ask you, the writer who normally enjoys going to writers conferences – what would you love to see in an online conference?
There are a few ways we could go. One person suggested that since going to a conference all day for two or three days can be exhausting, maybe we should spread it out to several half-days over a month. Someone else suggested creating a writers summit instead of a conference – a free or low-cost event with lots of great content, but each speaker gets to pitch something that they sell at the end of each session (a course, a book).
I have to admit, for me the conference experience is the joy of seeing old friends and the fun of making new ones, and sharing all of the fun and learning together. If we recreate the conference experience online, we can create little experiences where we get to meet and talk to new people, hang out with old friends, and share our coffee or wine together.
We’ve come up with some super fun ideas to keep it interesting even as we’re apart. For instance, I could have a yoga instructor or physical trainer come on for a couple minutes every few hours to get us up and moving a little, get some more blood and oxygen into our brains.
We could still have a timed writing sprint room in the morning or at night where people could meet and write together. We could have a fireside chat one or two nights with a fun, famous author talking about their writing life and taking questions. We could even have pajama parties! We’d break it up according to genres or topics.
So what do you think? If you’re thinking you might not be flying to a writers conference this year, what’s the best way to recreate that awesome experience online? Share your thoughts and I’ll incorporate what I can into the first ever WRITE NOW! Workshop Writers Conference!
And save the date: October 9-11, 2020!
Perimenopause got you down? Read and laugh with this fun new book!
Check out RAVE, the Reader Author Vegas Event, coming to Las Vegas in November in tandem with the new Author Nation conference!
August featured author Kitty Bucholtz has combined her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher turned coach.
August featured author Kitty Bucholtz has combined her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher turned coach.
A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
Rainy will have to dig deep and use all the tools in her box to both defend herself and the people she's just learning to love.
More info →Christmas in Marietta, with all the trimmings, may be just the ticket.
More info →For Gracie McIntyre opening a new-and-used book shop gives her more than she bargains for.
More info →A soldier and a nun discover forbidden love in war-torn Italy during the winter of 1943.
More info →Detective Finn O'Brien catches the call: two kids and their nanny are dead behind the gates of Freemont Place.
More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
Copyright ©2017 A Slice of Orange. All Rights Reserved. ~PROUDLY POWERED BY WORDPRESS ~ CREATED BY ISHYOBOY.COM
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
What a great idea! I’ve saved the dates.
I would like to see time for chatting and writing sprints along with classes or workshops. Not a fan of pajama parties so I would hope for a la cart scheduling.
Hi Marianne! Thanks for the input! I’m sure I can arrange times for those things. 🙂 And I love the a la carte idea. We’ll still have 3 workshops to choose from at each breakout session, so we can have multiple things to do during the other times. 😀 Thanks! Let me know if you think of anything else!