Why I Am Not Going to the AMTA Conference This Year

I made a decision NOT to go to the American Music Therapy Association national conference this year. This decision has nothing to do with the money involved (unlike many folks on social media) and has everything to do with me and my involvement in AMTA as an organization.

This is the first year that I haven't made national conference a priority in my life. In the past 26 years, I have presented or served on committees or boards and have attended the conference. I have attended each and every conference, but this year is the year that I'm going to break my personal record.

Here are the reasons why I am NOT going to the AMTA conference this year:

1. I did not have any ideas for presentations this time around. I usually have lots of ideas for presenting information to the music therapy community, but this year I came up dry. Rather than recycle some old ideas or send off half-baked concepts, I decided not to push myself. As a result, I know that I am not presenting this year.
2. I have received very little inspiration from conferences in the past several years. I've found it so much easier to ditch all the presentations lately. Not much has inspired me to be a better music therapist lately, and I've noticed specific trendy topics becoming more and more highlighted rather than focusing on topics of interest to larger audiences. I do not need any CMTEs, so I really do not need to spend the time or the money.
3. I have nothing to do. I used to fill all my time with committee work and meetings, but I am no longer in that role, so it seems a bit silly to spend the time and the energy just to go.
4. I'm tired of the "same old song." Every meeting is the same. Every presentation is the same or it is uninteresting to me. This is probably the biggest reason that I'm not going to be part of the conference this year. Nothing seems relevant or even interesting to me any more.

I know that I will regret this decision once conference time rolls around, but I will try to remember that this was a decision that I made for myself during that time. It will be difficult, and I may look for something else to occupy my brain and my attention during that time. I could certainly use the money that I usually spend on conference for something else...

Instead of conference, I am going to look out for interesting webinars or courses to take that have something to do with my current role as a music therapist. I already have some information about a two-day webinar that I will try to get approved, and I signed up for a webinar for this evening. I will also share some of the ideas that I have about music therapy technique with others during this fall semester. This year is all about courage for me - the courage to do things that scare me a bit - and skipping conference in favor of things that are more important to me is one of those courageous things. It really is.

There you go - that's my reasoning for NOT going to the conference this year. I'll miss it, but I think it will be the best thing for me this year...something out of the ordinary routine for me...something that will open my eyes to other opportunities and interests...something new.