Peace of Mind Organizing

Confessions of a conference junkie

15 September 2014

Later in the week, I’ll be traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend the annual conference of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization. This is one of two organizing conferences I attend in a typical year. This year, I also attended two genealogy conferences.

I love conferences. I started going to them 25 years ago when I worked in PR for the Missouri Botanical Garden and had the privilege of attending the Garden Writers Association annual conference for six years. In my next career, I met every year with fellow dog writers and fellow cat writers (and I continued to go to garden writers’ conferences).

But it was when I became an organizer in 2005 that I hit the conference motherlode. Most years I attend the annual conferences of both the National Association of Professional Organizers and the ICD. In addition, I’ve had the privilege of attending the conferences of the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers in Brisbane, Australia (I spoke there in 2009), and Professional Organizers in Canada, in Toronto.

Why do I go to the considerable expense and time of attending these conferences year after year? There are so many reasons. Here are a few:

• The education. I learn so much during the conference sessions.
• The CEUs. To maintain my status as a Certified Professional Organizer®, I am required to earn an average of 15 hours of continuing education a year. The conferences help me get those Continuing Education Units.
• The inspiration. I leave a conference all jazzed up about my business. The sessions, along with conversations with colleagues, inspire me to explore new services, to make changes in my business, or simply to focus on the aspects of my business that I love most.
• The networking. By meeting organizers all the country (and the world), I expand my knowledge base. I have people I can call on to help me puzzle out virtually every challenge! I also have people I can refer clients to all over the country.
• The camaraderie. As you might have imagined, I’ve made some really great friends over the years at these conferences. Attending every year is a bit like going to summer camp, I imagine. (I never went to summer camp.)
• The fun. The conferences are held in fun cities (hello, Music City!) and there’s never a shortage of fun stuff to do.

If you’re a professional organizer and you haven’t attended an organizers’ conference yet, please consider putting it in your budget for 2015! If you’re a new or aspiring organizer, I heartily recommend attending a conference early on. I attended the NAPO conference at the first opportunity, before I’d had more than a handful of clients, and it was outrageously beneficial, even if I had to finance it with a credit card.

I’m an extrovert who loves meeting new people. But even introverts can thrive at conferences, with the right amount of alone time scheduled in. Organizers tend to be really nice, friendly people.

If reading this post inspires you to attend a NAPO or ICD conference, please introduce yourself to me at the conference and let me know. I’ll buy you a drink!

Tagged with: becoming a po, becoming a professional organizer, conference, icd, napo

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