Back in January I had a schedule of conferences I wanted to attend. Colorado Gold. Northern Colorado Writers Conference. Pikes Peak Writers Conference. RMFW Writers Retreat. MileHiCon. And a few more. All of them canceled because of the pandemic. What’s a writer to do?
What we can do is go to virtual conferences. RMFW, Northern Colorado Writers, and Pikes Peak Writers have formed the Colorado Writers’ Collaborative, and will be holding a free virtual conference in September. To get news on the conference, follow RMFW Colorado Gold Conference on Facebook or keep checking the Conference Page on the RMFW website.
One of the big national conferences is the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference. Their 2020 virtual conference will be November 5-7. It’s not free, the registration cost is $349 for the basic conference. There are some extra cost add-ons as well.
MileHiCon is our local literary sci-fi con. If you’re writing in the fantasy, science fiction, or speculative fiction genres, this is a great con. Their virtual conference is October 23-25. Registration is $35, and they have an interesting option to register for 2020 and 2021 for $75.
So what are the pros and cons of virtual conferences?
Pros: No travel expenses. No lodging and meal expenses. You can attend in your pyjamas, and you don’t even have to get out of bed! If the session you’re watching isn’t working for you, you can just change the channel.
Cons: Limited or no ability to ask questions or make comments during the presentation. No in-person interactions with presenters, other writers, publishers, etc. No vendor rooms. No art gallery at those sci-fi conferences. No meals with other attendees. And especially, no getting out of the house and away from mundane life for the weekend!
It looks like a lot more cons than pros. But we’re not going to have much choice for the foreseeable future.
It remains to be seen how well virtual conferences will work. We can probably expect some technical issues, since everyone is new at running this kind of thing. And we don’t know if it will fill our individual needs for getting the kind of information and interaction we’re used to.
What do you think? Are you planning to attend any virtual writers’ conferences? If you’ve attended one already, what was the experience like? And do you know of any other virtual conferences that you think people should about? Please add your comments!
(Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay)
Not ideal, but we’ve had to adjust to many things… thanks to those planning and participating in the virtual conference. I have set aside sept 12th and look forward to it.
The virtual conference is better than no conference. Still, the fun of meeting and interacting with other writers will be missed by me.
The virtual conference isn’t perfect but it is better than some of the alternatives. And for an old lady that has trouble getting around it may be the best I can hope for.