I recently participated in two online conferences—the Beau Monde conference (for Regency-era writers) and this past weekend I was on faculty with the Northwestern Christian Writers Conference. I have been involved with NCWC over the last few years when the conference was held in-person near me in St. Paul, Minnesota. This year, as with a lot of things, most conferences are either being canceled or going to a virtual format.
Like many other people, I went into the experience with a level of uncertainty. Would it be worthwhile? Would pre-recording the sessions be effective without being able to take questions? Would 1:1 appointments work, and what about the loss of networking? But I have to say, I think the pros of these virtual conferences outweighed the cons. (Then again, I am an introvert so I didn’t miss the large group interactions as much as others would. :)) I know several writers who specifically didn’t sign up because the NCWC conference went virtual. For a while the registration numbers were below expectations. But as the conference drew close, writers began registering from distant states as well as from other countries, like Canada and the UK. In the end, total attendance ended up being robust indeed.
For the conference, I co-taught a class on “Getting Started in Christian Fiction” with author-friend Michelle Griep. And because we pre-recorded our talks ahead of time, attendees and faculty are able to watch all the workshops over a two-week period, instead of having to pick only one or two.
So far, I have only had time to watch Mary DeMuth’s talk on “Write the Truth; Change the World.” But I plan to watch more, like author Tessa Afshar’s “Become Your Own Best Editor,” Shawn Smucker’s “Creating Characters with Depth,” Susan Meissner’s “How to Maintain Great Relationships in Your Writing Career,” as well as others.
The keynote addresses were awesome. Alicia Britt Chole spoke Friday night. I was not familiar with her but her talk really moved me (as well as my husband and son who watched with me). And on Saturday morning, the legendary Karen Kingsbury gave an inspiring message about looking for miracles in everyday life and letting Jesus be the hero of our stories.
Later that day, I took 1:1 appointments via Zoom and met over a dozen up-and-coming writers that I truly enjoyed connecting with. I also participated in a fiction “Pro-Advice Panel” with a few other faculty, and, oh my goodness, did participants ask great questions. The hour went all too quickly. And finally, the conference team did an amazing job managing the technical details and keeping us all organized.
As I mentioned, I went into these virtual conferences a little reluctantly, feeling like they were a second-best substitute. But both were great experiences. Now, I am considering with far more interest upcoming online conferences like ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and JASNA (The Jane Austen Society of North America.)
What about you? Have you attended a virtual conference of some sort yet? Thinking about it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Hi Julie! In-person live conferences are certainly my preference, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how well virtual conferences have worked. I find that I’m really distracted by the sidebar Chat and I get frustrated when I can’t see who is speaking when there are technology blips. I imagine we will see your next book release virtually. Whatever format it turns out to be, we will be there!! Take care my favorite author and treasured friend!
Hi Suzy! Yes, we had a few brief glitches, but the conference team was amazing and fixed all quickly. I hadn’t thought of doing a book release party virtually…interesting idea, my friend! Love you.
I have been attending all sorts of meetings with Zoom and Google Meet, including Sunday School and fellowship, and also work meetings and school meetings. I have gotten used to the video conferencing and I don’t mind it a bit, though I would hope to meet others in person, especially the fellowship.
But video conferencing has brought something good too. One person in my fellowship group had went to another church because her home is quite far away from our church. Now she gets the chance to come to our fellowship meetings.
One of my friends was planning to create a puppet show performance about Christian faith. Having a bit of experience in puppetry, I showed her how to plan her puppet show through Zoom. I used two devices, my laptop and my mobile phone. The laptop camera filmed my face while the phone filmed my desk, and it was not hard to show her what to do.
BTW, I like the logo of the Northwestern Christian Writers Conference. And the titles of the talks you watched sound interesting!
Thanks, Anna. Yes, very interesting. And how cool that you were able to use technology to help a friend!
I feel live conferences in Person are much better! In my opinion I don’t like virtual conferences
It just doesn’t feel the same like in person conferences
I can understand that, Anna. I admit I missed the hugs… Then again, with social distancing, we probably wouldn’t have been hugging anyway. 🙂
I’ve also been hesitant about online conferences. I already stares at my computer a lot while writing. Do I want to stare at it more?! 🙂 Thus, it’s great to hear about your positive experience.
I think the fact that you recorded your sessions so that attendees can spread them out and watch them over a two week period was brilliant. That makes it much more appealing! Kudos to the organizers and faculty for finding a way to hold the conference in a new format.
Yes, I agree. The organizers did an AMAZING job managing all the tech, while answering questions with patience and kindness. I was very impressed.
Attended the Chicago-North RWA virtual conference this weekend, and found many pros and cons. The pros? No expensive travel, my own bed, and the ability to access more of the terrific workshops I missed the first time – for up to a year! Cons: No change of scenery, no meals I didn’t have to clean up, virtual pitching (ugh), severe Zoom fatigue afterward, and no opportunity to connect with writer friends I only get to see at conferences. Yes, even introverts need people sometimes! It’s true writers spend a lot of time staring at screens, but I find writing a story much less stressful on the eyes.
Hi Janice. Yes, you’re right. I would have really enjoyed having time to talk more with fellow writers during the conference. Glad you attended though. Hope you learned a lot.
I’ve signed up for ACFW and can’t wait. So far out of the many things which have moved to virtual in 2020, I have yet to catch a writer’s conference, but am excited about this one. For those in my local ACFW chapter who have also signed up, we hope to get together in person to share the experience. At the very least, we plan to meet up to watch the Gala together, because we have three Genesis finalists in our group! Hopefully at least one of us will win, and it would be so fun to celebrate together — not in St. Louis, as would be ideal, but at least with each other.
I attended the virtual version of Realm Makers (for Christian speculative fiction writers) a week ago and loved it! The virtual format didn’t bother me one bit, but that’s at least partially because I can’t travel for live conferences even wheb there isn’t a pandemic, so that was the only way I was going to do it. That conference was something I’d been hoping and praying for for several years, so it was truly an answer to prayer to get to participate, and everything I learned was exactly what I needed. I’d do another virtual conference in a heartbeat!