Prepare for Any Networking Event, Part 5: How to seize opportunities that don’t look like opportunities
I waited a long time to write part 5 of our Networking Prep series because first, as I tell my son, good things come to those who wait, and second, I wanted to base it on a recent in-person conference experience.
If you haven’t read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4 yet, consider adding them to your TBR list because the information in each one can be pretty helpful and applicable to a myriad of situations.
This past March, Brittany Dowdle and I learned that our book, Networking for Freelance Editors, was nominated as a finalist for a Benjamin Franklin award (given by IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association) in the Professional and Technical category. The award ceremony would take place during the three-day IBPA conference, in Orlando, Florida.
Conferences are events I love because there is so much learning at so many different levels going on. Between panels, keynote speakers, and industry vendors, conferences offer so many opportunities for learning and connecting with like-minded humans.
(Side note, we have not been paid to mention any of the resources we link to.)
To Go, or Not to Go
I try to attend at least one writer or editor conference per year (Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Conference in Pasadena, and an EFA or ACES one) but it had never occurred to me to attend one for book publishers. And although I’ve self-published my own books, and those of many clients under my tiny imprint The Insightful Editor, I don’t consider myself a publisher per se, at least not at the level of indie and hybrid companies. So why should I attend this one? Why spend all the money, take the days off from work and family responsibilities (well, that part wasn’t really hard, ha!) if this wasn’t my niche?
Or was it?
When we learned of the nomination, our first thought was, “No, we don’t deserve this award” (hello there, impostor syndrome!) followed by, “What does this award really mean?” We felt compelled to ask other fellow editors: “How much weight does this medal have in the greater context of things?” It turns out, this nomination was important, and no small feat. Getting to be a finalist was a huge honor, and it meant that we beat out many other great books in this category, too (1900 submissions across fifty-three categories).
I needed to do a simple cost-benefit analysis, so I tallied up the numbers for what my conference budget would have to be: airfare, three hotel nights, transportation to and from the airport, conference registration fees, a few meals, incidentals. Then I looked at the benefits.
One of the perks of attending the conference included a one-year IBPA membership. Then, there were benefits that I couldn’t put a price on, like the placement of our book on the IBPA book sales table at the event, at no cost, and the free exposure of our cover being shown on the IBPA website and their social media. What about the indie publishers I was going to meet who could turn into go-to resources for graphic design work, small print runs, marketing and publicity, and markets we hadn’t reached yet? When I started looking at the background of the speakers and the access we would have to them to ask questions, pose ideas, and just simply interact at a human level and learn about their journey, their successes and failures (i.e., successful business roadmaps I could follow myself) . . . well, all of the information and contacts I would gain were hard to put a price on. Then there was the possibility of winning the gold or silver medal and the credibility that would bring us as authors and editors. And I’m not even going to add what it would mean to see Brittany in person after four years and continue to hash out ideas and projects, while having a wonderful time together. That alone would have been worth it!
In the end, we realized what a terrific opportunity this would be for us and that this really was our target audience too—that all these conference attendees were people who worked with and needed writers, editors, translators, indexers, fact-checkers . . . either skills we have or skills people we work with on a daily basis have. So we needed to go. What’s more, the cost of going would probably be offset with the first client work we picked up there.
Real Life Situation: Are we ever “ready”?
So we went. Brittany flew in from Georgia, I came in from LA, and I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it was to meet up after not seeing each other in person for four years. Then, within an hour of checking into the hotel, we left our imposter syndrome in the room and headed out to the kickoff event titled “Literature & Libations + Ultimate Mix Tape Live.” My strategy was I’m just going to grab some snacks and a glass of wine and “observe.” Instead, we were assigned a table with five other people who worked in publishing, and together we competed as a team in the 80s trivia night. What can I say? I did very little “observing” and much more “laughing” and “bolting out” 80s music knowledge, with some dancing in between. There was not better ice-breaker than that, because we closed the evening with five new conference friends we would see again, over and over, within the next forty-eight hours. We were ready to be there. We had always been ready, we just didn’t know it.
The next day the conference began, and it was wonderful!
And we learned so much!
And we met so many more fantastic people! (Shout-outs to Alexa Bigwarfe from Write Publish Sell, Katherine Peragine from Crumblebee Books, Maria Dismondy from Cardinal Rule Press, and Mel Corrigan from Scribe Publishing Company . . . they ROCK.)
And if that wasn’t enough, we won the Benjamin Franklin silver medal in our category!
As conferences go, much a time was spent going from room to room to attend panels, keynotes, but also meeting up and sharing info during the lunch and snack breaks with our new 80s trivia teammates.
We came home exhausted . . . and full of ideas. We were both so happy we had chosen to attend a conference that wasn’t even on our radar. What a networking opportunity we would have missed had we dismissed this one as “not for me or my business.” I’m sure Brittany feels the same way, but in just those three days we made friendships for life. And none of the people we met were editors.
By the time Monday morning came, I was at my desk early seizing the momentum.
To read about how I seized this momentum, stay tuned for part 6 next.
If you’d like more info on how to prepare for meetings (which are the baby steps of conferences), check out “7 Critical Ways Productive People Prepare for Meetings” by Inc.com. We look forward to hearing how you stepped out of your comfort zone and did something different for you and your business. Email us info@networkingforeditors.com with “Out of My Comfort Zone” in the subject line. We’re always looking for different networking opportunities that we might have not thought about, so we’d love to hear from you.
Linda Ruggeri is a full-service editor and now and award-winning writer based out of Los Angeles. She coauthored the historical memoir Stepping Into Rural Wisconsin: Grandpa Charly’s Life Vignettes from Prussia to the Midwest and Networking for Freelance Editors. She can be found online at The Insightful Editor and on Instagram.