STORY10 Recap
Last year after attending a conference called STORY in Chicago, I came home and started reading the blog of the man behind the conference — Ben Arment.
In November, I applied for a coaching program called Dream Year that Ben does. In December I screamed with joy when I received an email with this subject line — Welcome to Dream Year. My dream is to share hope through living, speaking and writing.
Dream Year has been going great. (you could sign up here for 2011) With Ben’s coaching I’ve developed a more disciplined writing schedule and my memoir is now ‘finished’ and being edited. (I say finished loosely, because I’m always going back and tweaking something in it)
This year Ben invited all the Dream Year participants to have an exhibit at STORY to gain exposure. The timing of this conference was perfect as I’m at the place where I need to seek opportunities to share my story in person to help open doors for publication of my book.
Over the past few weeks, an artist friend helped me design a display. In the design process, we talked to a local photo/printing shop about printing options. They allowed me to rent their table top display.
And last week a friend and I went to Chicago for STORY. No one else does a conference quite like Ben Arment does. He’s all about a five-senses experience — smell/sight/sound/taste/touch. From the ‘hot dog’ cart loaded with free goodies (gum, donuts, CDs, books, etc) to the speaker lineup to the visual effects — it’s all unique.
Here is Ben Arment’s recap of the conference.
Blaine Hogan did the opening of STORY10 … see his pics and recap here.
STORY was held in Park Community Church.
My display — set up for business. Loved connecting with people from all over the country.
Loretta doing what I took her along to do —
handing out hundreds of promos.
After the conference, it was time to tour the windy city.
We visited the Navy Pier.
Took a ride on the Ferris wheel
Did a walk/run along Lake Michigan
Loretta enjoying the day
The week was a smashing success — I meet other Dream Year participants, learned from the speakers, connected with many people, saw a different city and laughed till I cried. Time will tell if it was beneficial as far as getting venues to share my story.
Addition — Scott Hodge was one of the emcees at STORY and he posted a great recap including his thoughts from many of the speakers. Now I plan to do that tomorrow — to help me absorb more of what I heard and to share it with you.
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