Speaking at a Literacy Conference

Tasks to Get Ready for Success

I am speaking later this week at the Arkansas Literacy Association (ALA), and have been getting ready for a couple weeks. I’ll have a table to sell books and will speak twice. There are so many tasks!

This is a conference I’ve spoken at before, so I’m on their mailing list. In the spring, when they opened for proposals to speak at the conference, I sent in a proposal. Usually the teacher-related conferences like this want the session to relate to some teaching goal. With nonfiction picture books, it was easy to put together a proposal. I was notified a couple months ago that it was accepted, so I sent in a reservation for a table.

Goals for Speaking at a Conference

First, let’s talk about goals. When you go to a conference, you should have a distinct goal in mind and everything should point towards that. This, in itself, is hard because there are so many possible goals. Do you want books sales, leads for speaking engagements, leads for a Kickstarter, build your mailing list, or something else?

For example, if you want to build your mailing list, you’d prep everything behind the scenes for THAT goal. You’d want signup sheets, QR codes to a signup form, a generous space on the table for signup forms, and so on. Maybe set up a drawing for a free book(s) for those who provide an email.

Here are my goals and what I’ve been doing behind the scenes to get ready.