Episode 4, 40 Before 40
Years ago, I made business cards. They said that when you go to conferences, you should have business cards to hand out. So I made some. Went to a conference and handed out maybe two of them. That was when my career took a shift and I went and studied philosophy instead of pursuing writing full-time. I threw away the business cards.
But a few years later, I am sitting in a conference and thinking that I should have kept those business cards because now I need them. Because instead of just attending this conference, as I had done previously, I was now a presenter.
Some people present at conferences as a way to market something they are selling (this is a great strategy). I was not presenting because of that. Instead, I simply wanted to share something interesting with other people that I had learned. After applying to be a presenter, I was somewhat surprised when they called and invited me to do a session at the conference. 50 minutes reserved for me and what I wanted to say.
The reality is that I’ve gotten rejected for most of the conferences I’ve applied to. While sometimes I felt bad about this, I now think that it’s a really good thing. If you get lots of rejections with a few acceptances, it means you’re aiming at the right level. It’s low enough you can get those occasional acceptances, but high enough that you’re stretching yourself and aiming for the best experiences. If you’re never getting acceptances, you might want to revise what you’re doing. If you are never getting rejections, you should aim higher.
This non-academic conference felt a bit different to me. I was a bit different. I’ve been at conferences where I felt like there were successful people who knew what they were doing, and then there was me, and I was just trying to learn something because I had no idea. But I’m realizing that picture is not accurate. There isn’t a divide between successful people and unsuccessful people. Yes, we are on different stages of our careers, but it is really more like we’re all peers who can learn from each other. I thought I had to be somewhat of an expert, but we’re all experts in our own way. The only different is that I figured out how to market my expertise in a way that made a good conference presentation.
I presented on research: what I’ve learned from doing research for the past few years in my PhD program and how it relates to storytelling. My main takeaways were these: Put the story first, and research only supports the story. Use Zotero to organize research. Look for sources in unexpected places, particularly by talking to other people.
I am sure that there are people at the conference who have way more experience than I do, but I did feel like I had learned something that would be useful and interesting. It was great to share. I think people did find it useful. They seemed generally attentive and a few came and talked to me afterwards. It wasn’t a big session (I actually have a bigger audience in the ethics class I teach every week), but it also wasn’t sparse.
I want to do it again. I like presenting at academic conferences, but I might prefer to present outside of academics. The conference I presented at was a conference that focused on publishing, media, and the arts, which included writers, editors, songwriters, artists, and more. It gave me an opportunity to connect (and reconnect) with lots of people.
I have another presentation that I recently found about that I will give in the spring at a science fiction and fantasy conference. I’ll keep applying to conferences that meet my interests, particularly those I’ve gone to before. And sometimes I’ll get rejected, but sometimes it might just work out.
The things I’ve learned from this experience:
- It’s good to figure out how market yourself as a professional, particularly by focusing on what makes you unique.
- There isn’t really a divide between experts and non-experts; we’re all just at different stages in our own journey and interacting with each other on the way.
- You shouldn’t think you are any better than anyone else because you are further along in your journey.
- And you shouldn’t think you are any worse because you are beginning your journey.
- I should remember to take pictures.
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