Wowzers! I feel like the month of November came and went in the blink of an eye! Rachel and I were talking before recording the podcast the other day and honestly think this may have been our busiest month since moving into our new building. We have had all of the pots simmering at the same time! We’ve been so busy, but with the most incredible projects!
One of the big things we were focused on in November was attending our national Music Therapy conference in St. Louis.
We were so grateful that this year, the conference was only a quick 90 minute drive instead of the 9.5 hours it was last year. (You can hear all about our conference experience last year in CBB Episode 6).
We had a lot of new experiences at our conference in 2016 (including selling products for the first time!) and wanted to avoid some of the mistakes we made last year so we could make the most out of this year’s conference.
For those of you who have never sold products in person before, there is a lot that goes into it! Last year, we put so many things off until the last minute and ended up scrambling to get it all done and get everything loaded in the car so we could actually hit the road on time.
Selling products in person is so different from doing it online or even just handing out information. We learned that lesson the hard way and didn’t want to be up until midnight the night before leaving putting together final products and sale catalogs.
When we finally got to conference last year, we were super prepared and ready to sell absolutely everything we had created but we didn’t leave our booth and came out of the conference experience feeling exhausted.
To set ourselves up for an awesome conference this year, we started our planning months in advance! We knew we wanted to step up our game this year and actually take in the whole conference. While we still wanted to exhibit and sell products, we also feel like that’s not what the conference experience is about for us.
It’s about everything outside our products. Our conference is about the connections we make, sharing our passion, and, at the heart of everything, sharing our “why”. It’s about learning new things, exploring new ideas, and opening ourselves up to a new world of opportunities.
We knew we had huge goals to achieve so we started planning at the very beginning of 2017. We started forming our game plan for our booth last winter when Alisabeth shared her idea for a Sign Language CMTE course. We knew it would be a huge amount of work so we determined our November conference as the launch date!
Because we sell so many products and wanted to share more about them or develop more tools, Rachel and I decided we also wanted to present this year. We knew that it would be an interesting challenge trying to determine our focus 6 months ahead of time, so we stuck with a topic we are incredibly familiar with and knew we could talk about for hours: working with kids. Not only did we talk about working with children but we shared a free tool we developed just for the occasion: The Essential Toolkit for Working With Children.
Holy cow!!! We could not have anticipated the reaction we got when we presented. By sharing more of who we are and the “why” behind what we do, we created a cohesive message that brought together all of the different pieces of our conference experience.
I think it was so validating for people to hear that music therapy is so much more than just the songs we sing. We shared a list of the tools that people forget they are using in therapy, like their personality, life experience, and presence. I think everyone was able to walk out of our presentation with something even beyond the toolkit we provided.
Creating that cohesion and presence was our primary goal for the conference, but that’s not to say we didn’t have other things we wanted to take away. We wanted to make connections and have fun!!!!
The first day of our conference was exhausting and overwhelming. Between the prepping for conference, travel, setup of our booth, seeing everyone for the first time, hauling everything to our room, etc., we were done! Rachel and I decided to take some much needed time away to just unwind and grab a nice dinner together.
A lot of people think that since we are business partners that we must hang out all the time. Sadly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I wish we could just hang out more because we always have an amazing time, but the truth of the matter is that we generally only see each other once or twice a week and in meetings.
Because we don’t get that time together, it made our first night dinner so much more wonderful. We actually got to sit and enjoy a bottle of wine and an amazing dinner and just chat for a couple hours. It was great getting to catch up on so many of the things that get lost in the daily grind.
I could go on and on about all of the other amazing parts of our conference experience but instead I’ll just briefly touch on a few of the other incredible highlights: They include:
- The first night exhibit spectacular where we got to show off our brand new course and see everyone!
- My reunion dinner with 20+ other Western Illinois students/alumni and professors.
- Getting to meet and re-connect with several people I’ve either met online or only met at conference.
- Going to sessions and learning new methods or getting new ideas that I can apply in my session
- Debuting our NEW CMTE course!!!!! Alisabeth was like the shining star of our booth!! It was so cool to watch everything come together and see her in a different role. It was like a proud parent moment!
- Our MTC Dinner – We got together with 6 people who have been a part of our team in some way and got to reconnect during a family dinner! It was so splendid getting to just sit down and chat with everyone!!! We <3 our MTC family!
- Talking to podcast listeners!!! We love you all so much!!! Thank you for your love and understanding! Thank you for listening and your support! You have no idea how much meeting you mean to us!
We love going to our conference every year and think that it is an experience that everyone should have. Even if you can’t make it to a national conference or if you aren’t a music therapist, we encourage you find opportunities to learn, grow, and connect with other people. Even small seminars or meet-up groups can be incredibly beneficial.
Those experiences not only help you connect with other professionals and network but also help you get out of your routine, and shake things up. Learning experience and conferences are what you make of them. Seek out those opportunities and have goals for them that will help you grow.
We know that the conference would not be possible without all of the people who worked behind the scenes to make it all possible so THANK YOU!!
Thank you to everyone who severed on a committee!
Thank you to all of the conference organizers!
Thank you to everyone who volunteered!
Thank you to everyone who presented!
Thank you to all of the exhibitors!
Thank you to all of the conference coordinators!
Thank you to everyone who attended and everyone we saw at conference!
Thank you, everyone. We love you.
Be sure to keep in touch!
Until Next Time,
Katey & Rachel
