Type A Conference Recap

I’m a few days back from Type A Con and I can’t stop thinking about what a great time I had.  I met some amazing new people that I’ve been daydreaming about connecting with.  I also had a chance to reconnect with some others who I haven’t see in a few months.

Type A was a weird juggling act for me.  Obviously, I was an attendee.  I wanted to soak in the knowledge of the sessions and connect with people who can help me make a difference on this little blog of mine.  I couldn’t get to all the sessions, but I learned so much in Melanie Nelson’s session on Facebook Pages and the Blog Design session.  I didn’t get to hear Peter Pollack’s session on Blog Coding, but I heard a lot of good things about it and will be reading his writings to see what I can pick up.

I was also a sponsor.  For Dummies had a table in the expo area where we were showcasing some of our books and introducing bloggers to the brand.  I was very impressed with the conversations I had.  Quite a few people came up to me and asked how I wanted to them to engage with us.  No wallflowers here, that’s for sure.  I appreciated that, and it gave me the opportunity to talk about how Dummies books can help bloggers solve problems, meet challenges, and use all of it as great content on their social sites.  Other sponosors I spoke with felt similarly about the crowd.  A special shout out has to go to Everyday Family.com for sponsoring the lounge.  You were my go-to for snacks and soda, and because of your great set-up I always knew where to find Kelby.

Wiley also sponsored the opening keynote with author Chris Garrett.  It was fun to see him out of his element a little in with a different crowd.  I heard a lot of good feedback about the messages he shared with the attendees.

Completing the trifecta, I was also a speaker.  Amy Fandrei, one of the editors on the For Dummies team, and I spoke about how to craft a book proposal.  It was one of the “hands on” sessions, meaning we handed out the proposal form and walked people page by page through it.  We got a lot of good questions about what makes a good proposal and how prospective authors can best convey what they want to write about in such a short form.

Because I was so wrapped up wearing 3 hats, I didn’t take any pictures.  I also didn’t take any notes at my session, but I was tickled pink and surprised to see this great post from Christina at Well, In THIS House on her blog.  Thank you so so much for taking the time to put that together.  I hope those who could not attend the session can read it and get a lot of knowledge out of it.  Amy and I appreciate it so much.

Kelby, you run an amazing conference.  I’m so glad the planets aligned and I was able to get there.  I can’t wait to connect with everyone next year and see what’s up your sleeve then.