I’m Teaching at Craftcation

I’m really excited to be teaching and speaking at the Craftcation making and business conference this year.

At the start of 2014 I set a series of year-long goals for my business. I knew I needed a new website and that was going to be this year’s major financial investment, but for a long time I’ve wanted to go to a conference or trade show. So one of my goals for this year was to evaluate all of the conferences and trade shows and choose the one that would be the best fit for me for 2015.

I very rarely travel for work because I’m home with my kids while I run my business. We have no local family so for me to be away means that my husband has to take time off work or I have to hire full-time help to be here for the kids in my absence. It’s tricky. (You might remember this from my post about why I didn’t go to Quilt Market).

Photo by Matthew Williams.

Traveling is also expensive and I have to be sure it’s really worth it for my business. I knew that it wouldn’t make sense to go to Quilt Market just to check it out or to Sewing Summit just to sew with friends. The right conference would be worth the expenditure and worth taking time away from my family.

After evaluating all of the possibilities I came to the conclusion that Craftcation was the best fit for me. It’s not entirely focused on quilting cottons and fabric designers (like Quilt Market), nor is it too focused on blogging (like BlogHer) or on working with brands (like AltSummit). The people that I want to connect with are the people who go to Craftcation and the classes offered are the classes I want to take.

I was so thrilled over the summer when Nicole Stevenson, one of the founders and organizers of Craftcation, emailed me to ask if I would teach and speak at the conference. Truly. I am so excited!

To fly by myself to California. To be by the beach, with my people, teaching and learning and hanging out. This is the conference that’s worth going to.

Photo by Matthew Williams.

I’ll be teaching a class with the folks at Mailchimp about building an audience and customer base with an email newsletter. I’ll also be moderating a panel about podcasting along with Elise Cripe, Dave Conrey, and Kari Chapin. And I’ll be sitting on another panel about work/life balance and running a business while raising children. The rest of the time I’m going to be learning!

The whole class line-up looks amazing. Tara Swiger and Diane Gilleland are teaching about content marketing and blogging. Megan Auman is doing workshops on pricing for profit and getting your handmade goods into stores. Robert Mahar will show us how to produce a DIY video, Kayte Terry is talking about creativity, Lisa Solomon is teaching a block printing class and the list goes on. Check out the full workshop schedule here.

Photo by Matthew Williams.

And there will be cocktails. And yoga. And time to just talk. The presenters have office hours so you can meet one-on-one and go over your specific ideas and business questions (including me – please come talk to me about blogging and sewing and small business).

Will you be there? Early bird registration begins this morning at 9am PST. The first 50 to register save $45 so it’s worth it to sign up early. I truly hope to meet you. Let’s hang out in Ventura!