Communication Central 2014
Sep. 28th, 2014 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blatherskiteJust returned home from the annual early-autumn Communication Central conference, in downtown Rochester, New York.
CC is organized and run by Ruth Thaler-Carter, all by herself, which is rather amazing when you think of all the things that need doing to plan and run a conference. But Ruth has more energy than any two other people I know, she clearly loves hosting a huge gathering, and she feeds us and pampers us for two packed days, with excellent speakers. (I'm frankly honored to be included as a speaker in such August company, and work hard each year to be worthy of that honor.) I doubt the STC conference planners read this blog, but if you're listening, it bears repeating: "and she feeds us and pampers us". Sort of odd that STC charges an order of magnitude more than Ruth does for their annual conference, and neither cover speaker costs nor feed attendees. You guys could learn a thing or two from Ruth.
CC is far more manageable and focused than most conferences. Among other things, it's smaller and more cozy (usually ca. 50 people, though more would be welcome) and slower (only 2 tracks of sessions, usually a dozen or so in total), so it's both relaxing and highly informative -- best of all, because there's less going on, you have more energy to focus on what you're hearing and explore it and make it part of your toolkit. That's also because you get a chance to talk to nearly everyone who's there, which is simply impossible at bigger conferences. The end result is a very pleasant experience: I always come home with a couple pages of "I absolutely must start doing this" notes. Alas, there are still several big items from last year's CC that I still haven't done.
But this time is likely to be a bit different. One of the things I got out of the conference was a chance to complain to anyone who would listen about a few things that have been vexing me, including the fact that I really need to decrease my workload so that I can work on other things. Hearing myself saying this aloud rather than only echoing it in my head, and chatting with a bunch of sympathetic, really bright people, made me realize something: working on things like new books isn't really wasted time from a work perspective because I'm foregoing paid work. That's where my head's been the past several years. But seen from a more objective perspective, it's really an investment in future income, not to mention the pleasure of having done the work and shared it with others. This will motivate me to simply turn away some of my paying work and devote that time to writing my own stuff.
On another topic, one of the excellent sessions was about self-publishing, by four experts on the subject (Greg Ioannu, Jack Lyon, Ally Machate, and Dick Margulis -- from left to right in the panel, rather than order of preference.) One thing I've sort of acknowledged is that my editing book continues to generate significant income each month, but would generate significantly more if it were available on Amazon. I have serious qualms about doing business with Amazon, but Dick Margulis set my head straight in his characteristically straight-shooting way: he respected my point of principle, but pointed out that I was probably sacrificing 80% of my income in shunning Amazon. (He's published or shepherded enough books into print that he knows whereat he speaks.) He's right, and I need to list my book with Amazon. Thanks, Dick!
I had the unexpected pleasure of carpooling down to Rochester with a colleague I'd never met. Greg Ioannou introduced me to Adrienne Montgomerie, who was looking for a ride. (I'd offered to pick up anyone who lived along the route, since I was driving down anyway.) We chatted nonstop for 3 hours going down to Rochester and another 3 hours coming back. Greg, thanks a ton! Adrienne's a very cool person, and she's inspired me to do a bunch of things I'd sort of been pondering in a desultory manner for months or years, and they're quite exciting. More news here as they happen. But one thing she particularly helped me see (it emerged during a far-ranging conversation about all kinds of exploration of the nature of communication) was that I really needed to take a big step back from what I was doing and ask whether I'd correctly labeled that work. I've always described myself as a writer and editor, but it occurs to me that what I really am is a communicator.
This has all kinds of exciting implications, since writing and editing are about words, and words are only a small part of the tools I have available to me. One thing she suggested is that I start producing a series of YouTube videos that show how to accomplish some of the things that are only described in my editing book. It's a frankly brilliant idea. I've been wanting to break out of the straightforward Book 1.0 model of communicating what I know, and this seems like a perfect opportunity to evolve to Book 2.0, which is more about the communication and less about printing 5-pound books. The books will still have a place in what I do, but I hope to do so much more: videos, sequential animations, audiobooks, and so on.
I'm exhausted and fried after a long road trip, plus all the adrenaline of being at a conference, but I'm safely home and wanted to put some of this down "on paper" before retiring for the evening. I'm planning to do much more musing and possibly even begin implementing some of what I muse about in coming weeks. Stay tuned!
CC is organized and run by Ruth Thaler-Carter, all by herself, which is rather amazing when you think of all the things that need doing to plan and run a conference. But Ruth has more energy than any two other people I know, she clearly loves hosting a huge gathering, and she feeds us and pampers us for two packed days, with excellent speakers. (I'm frankly honored to be included as a speaker in such August company, and work hard each year to be worthy of that honor.) I doubt the STC conference planners read this blog, but if you're listening, it bears repeating: "and she feeds us and pampers us". Sort of odd that STC charges an order of magnitude more than Ruth does for their annual conference, and neither cover speaker costs nor feed attendees. You guys could learn a thing or two from Ruth.
CC is far more manageable and focused than most conferences. Among other things, it's smaller and more cozy (usually ca. 50 people, though more would be welcome) and slower (only 2 tracks of sessions, usually a dozen or so in total), so it's both relaxing and highly informative -- best of all, because there's less going on, you have more energy to focus on what you're hearing and explore it and make it part of your toolkit. That's also because you get a chance to talk to nearly everyone who's there, which is simply impossible at bigger conferences. The end result is a very pleasant experience: I always come home with a couple pages of "I absolutely must start doing this" notes. Alas, there are still several big items from last year's CC that I still haven't done.
But this time is likely to be a bit different. One of the things I got out of the conference was a chance to complain to anyone who would listen about a few things that have been vexing me, including the fact that I really need to decrease my workload so that I can work on other things. Hearing myself saying this aloud rather than only echoing it in my head, and chatting with a bunch of sympathetic, really bright people, made me realize something: working on things like new books isn't really wasted time from a work perspective because I'm foregoing paid work. That's where my head's been the past several years. But seen from a more objective perspective, it's really an investment in future income, not to mention the pleasure of having done the work and shared it with others. This will motivate me to simply turn away some of my paying work and devote that time to writing my own stuff.
On another topic, one of the excellent sessions was about self-publishing, by four experts on the subject (Greg Ioannu, Jack Lyon, Ally Machate, and Dick Margulis -- from left to right in the panel, rather than order of preference.) One thing I've sort of acknowledged is that my editing book continues to generate significant income each month, but would generate significantly more if it were available on Amazon. I have serious qualms about doing business with Amazon, but Dick Margulis set my head straight in his characteristically straight-shooting way: he respected my point of principle, but pointed out that I was probably sacrificing 80% of my income in shunning Amazon. (He's published or shepherded enough books into print that he knows whereat he speaks.) He's right, and I need to list my book with Amazon. Thanks, Dick!
I had the unexpected pleasure of carpooling down to Rochester with a colleague I'd never met. Greg Ioannou introduced me to Adrienne Montgomerie, who was looking for a ride. (I'd offered to pick up anyone who lived along the route, since I was driving down anyway.) We chatted nonstop for 3 hours going down to Rochester and another 3 hours coming back. Greg, thanks a ton! Adrienne's a very cool person, and she's inspired me to do a bunch of things I'd sort of been pondering in a desultory manner for months or years, and they're quite exciting. More news here as they happen. But one thing she particularly helped me see (it emerged during a far-ranging conversation about all kinds of exploration of the nature of communication) was that I really needed to take a big step back from what I was doing and ask whether I'd correctly labeled that work. I've always described myself as a writer and editor, but it occurs to me that what I really am is a communicator.
This has all kinds of exciting implications, since writing and editing are about words, and words are only a small part of the tools I have available to me. One thing she suggested is that I start producing a series of YouTube videos that show how to accomplish some of the things that are only described in my editing book. It's a frankly brilliant idea. I've been wanting to break out of the straightforward Book 1.0 model of communicating what I know, and this seems like a perfect opportunity to evolve to Book 2.0, which is more about the communication and less about printing 5-pound books. The books will still have a place in what I do, but I hope to do so much more: videos, sequential animations, audiobooks, and so on.
I'm exhausted and fried after a long road trip, plus all the adrenaline of being at a conference, but I'm safely home and wanted to put some of this down "on paper" before retiring for the evening. I'm planning to do much more musing and possibly even begin implementing some of what I muse about in coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Conference review
Date: 2014-10-02 12:14 am (UTC)Ginger