Post-Conference Thoughts

After attending any sort of conference, it always takes me a couple of days to assimilate the information that I've learned into a semblance of order. I tend to try to soak in as much knowledge as possible, so I am constantly taking notes and scribbling in my notebooks, but I don't often take many mindful moments during the conference itself to reflect and think about what I am hearing. I have a fear of missing out on some tidbit of life-changing information so I go into sponge mode - you know, soaking in everything I can until I cannot soak in any more? Anyone else??

This is one of the reasons that you rarely see me at the more social gatherings of conference. I need time away from the need to soak up stuff to wring myself out and start the process of synthesizing information. I am also an introvert who gets completely and totally exhausted by the need to interact with people all day, every day. I tend to get more hugs during conferences than the rest of my year, and the physical contact also exhausts me. I need time to sit in quiet and just be.

Today I am sitting at my computer, looking at my closed notebook, and wondering if I am ready to dive into it again. I don't think I am going to...yet.

Today will be a day for getting back to work. I have four groups to work through and then a round of instrument cleaning and then getting out of work so that we don't have too many people sitting in the building. Then, the drive back home and some time to work through some of my notes of the conference.

The nice thing about online conferences is that all the presentations that I couldn't see live are recorded so I can keep the joys of conference going for the next month. I plan on taking advantage of this fact and will be watching as many of the presentations that are relevant to me as possible. I don't need CMTEs, so I can watch the things that I want to watch rather than trying to get as many hours as possible just for the sake of getting hours.

My professional notes notebook is almost completely filled up. I got a new notebook in the mail last week, so I am ready to move into the next one! I started preparing the notebook yesterday as I was listening to my CMTE. All of the even pages are numbered and ready for me to start taking notes! I didn't bother numbering the odd numbers because I don't need numbers everywhere! I am ready to start using that notebook once my current one (Star Wars, of course) is completed  - only 14 pages left to go.

I take notes - handwritten notes - for every learning situation I am involved with. This is primarily because I am a visual learner who can remember things when I see them, and when I am immersed in a situation, if I write notes, I can remember the situation when I read through the notes. I can write pretty fast, so I can take lots of notes. This skill was a good one when I was in school, and the same skill helps me with other things now. I write to remember.

What did I get from this most recent conference? Hm.

On the surface, I know that there will be no turning back from offering online conferences from now on. The Midwestern region has proved that our conferences can be done live and online, so why not save ourselves some money and make these types of interactions a bit more available in the future? There will be some who will insist that in-person interactions are better, but there will be just as many who are more than satisfied with the online interactions. I could see our conferences becoming every-other-year live/online in the future. That reminds me, I need to sign up for the World Congress of Music Therapy which is online this year. Huh, I thought registration was open, but I can't find it. I'll spend some more time looking after work today. I am also looking forward to an online AMTA conference sometime this fall/winter. I have some ideas for presentation proposals to send in...and some that I'm going to keep to myself for my own business.

As for the sessions that I attended, I got some good reminders of things that I have forgotten. Design thinking is something that I really value and think that I utilized all the time, but I have become a bit lackadaisical about my purpose and process lately. Adapted lessons are things that I dabble with occasionally - it will all have to wait until my regular schedule starts up again before I can offer these services for my current clients - I don't have time in four hours to do four groups, notes, stocking the student store, and do lessons - but I was reminded of techniques that work. I was reminded that running a business is not something easy to do, but is something that I want for myself. There will be more revelations as I dive back into my notebook and think more about what I experienced.

I hope that you had a chance to go to the Midwestern Region conference this past weekend. If you didn't, I hope that you get a chance to be involved in something like this soon. The interaction that is available is a good thing right now - well, at least it is for me. Let's figure out how to do more of this, okay?? 

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