Meeting Report: NSA Fall Conference, Scottsdale, AZ
I spent four days in the desert in mid-November at the National Speakers Association (NSA) Fall Conference. This is a much smaller affair than the big Summer Convention, with only around 250 registered. We stayed at the sprawling Doubletree Scottsdale, right by Camelback Mountain. Stetson-wearing Mama’s drove their SUV’s past the Saguaro outside the compound.
On Thursday Bob Pike did a pre-conference workshop Who Else Wants to Be One of the Highest Paid Professional Speakers in Their Niche? This was wonderfully well-facilitated learning experience by one of the champion trainers in the country. I’ve already implemented many suggestions from his workshop in a proposal I submitted last week and, hey, I got the business!
Marketing Intensives
On the Friday and Saturday I attended the marketing intensive tracks. Phenomenal value. These two all-day sessions were different strokes for different folks. Bob Smith - Surefire Proven Ways to Out-Think, Out-Maneuver and Out-Market Your Competition filled 20 pages of my notebook with action items and to-do’s. On Saturday Steve Miller stayed true-to-form as a maverick and did not record his material; there were too many ‘trade secrets’ being shared. One tip that I immediately followed-up on was to buy a Flip Mino video camera so I can add more You Tube videos to my blogging and podcasting mix.
Top Eight Sessions
What of the rest of the Conference? Here’s a list of the the eight most popular sessions (as shown in the post-conference wrap session where people listed take-away’s from each session - these eight had the most post-it notes on the wall-charts - apart from Bob & Steve’s Marketing intensives that is.) I’ve placed my order for a copy of each of them for my continuing education.
Note: each session link is to the recording that ANYONE - NSA member or not - can purchase on CD or as an MP3 download.
- Ford Saeks - Mega Session: Social Media Marketing Secrets of Growing Your Speaking Business
- Aldonna Ambler, CMC, CSP - Mega Session: The Strategic Working Session YOU Need Right Now–Evaluate How You and Your Business Are Really Doing
- Francis Bologna, CPA and Vern Hoven, CSP, MT, CPAE - New Roads to Wealth and Opportunity for the Professional Speaker
- Becky Pike Pluth - Teaching From Tinseltown: How to Use Movie Clips to Teach and Train
- Heather Lutze - Become the Easiest Speaker to Find - Online! Learn how to achieve 1st-Page Search Engine Presense Using the FindAbility Formula!™
- Robert Bradford, MBA, CSP - Mega Session: Sell Your Speaking When You Stink at Sales: How to Stand Out in the Speaking Marketplace
- David Greenberg, CSP - Secrets to Creating a Killer Speech and Earning a Ton of Money Now!
- Dianna Booher, MA, CSP, CPAE - Writing in Layers: Developing a Creative, Quality Book Quickly
2 Comments so far
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Thank you Ian for the great blog post. I just found it with Google Alerts. I just adore the NSA group and it was my great pleasure to step in when another speaker could not attend. I look forward to presenting my MEGA session in Orlando in February coming up. See you all then. Visit my site if you have a chance at http://www.heatherlutze.com. Happy Holidays everyone.
Heather Lutze
Lutze Consulting
By Heather LUtze on 12.23.08 8:25 am
Thanks, Ian. One of my best sessions was one I called myself. Banking is my client base so I gathered together other NSAers who share the client base or are on their bank’s board of directors.
I recommend those going to Orlando to think ahead of time about who they most want to get together with and find an open spot to do it. Those I contacted were glad I did, and so was I.
Love the blog…
By Linda Keith on 01.03.09 8:18 am
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