Right after graduating college, I landed my first job for a medical company in New York. I worked in marketing and handled their event planning. Back then, we didn’t do virtual. Everything was in person and it was a neat mix of stress and fun.

Fast-forward 17 years and I’m still in event planning. But the dynamics have dramatically shifted. Now, instead of bringing medical personnel together, I’m organizing an event for writers. And the technology allow me to take a different approach that might just be better for my audience.

I thought you’d enjoy knowing what goes behind the scenes of planning a conference, so I’ll dedicate the next few blog posts to sharing the joys (and frustrations) of the experience.

LCWC 2021 will be virtual. That was a big decision, believe it or not. There are a lot of us who long for the in-person events and there’s a huge part of me that understands now may not be the best time to bring us all together.

But, as I’m sure you realize in life, hidden in every challenge is an opportunity.

For us, the opportunity lies in being able to recruit talent from near and far without the additional expenses of travel. This year, I’m honored to teach alongside local Lancaster county talent as well as national best-selling authors. Check out our complete faculty roster here.

Pooling together so much knowledge and hard-earned experience is a challenge. But, for those of you who know me, I thrive on doing the difficult.

My kids often hear me say:

You’ll never know how far you can go unless you push yourself!

And I guess it’s time to practice what I preach. So this year, I’m working on hosting virtual 1:1 appointments as well as meetings with literary agents. But I’m not doing it all alone. I’ve got backup!

My brother in the faith Gregg Bridgemann, and his wife Hallee Bridgeman, who is a USA Today bestselling author, will be the tech experts in the field.

More on that next time.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at LCWC 2022.

JPR