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I trotted off to the Mumpreneur Conference at the weekend a little unsure of what to expect. Unlike most conferences there wasn’t much pre-publicity about the day’s content, and apart from knowing I was running a seminar about web site optimization, I really didn’t know what else was on the agenda.
I showed up later than planned, thanks to railway delays, and had a big surprise…
The City Inn, Birmingham, was heaving! The conference was in full swing and the atmosphere was fab. The conference comprised six seminars plus two presentations from renowned business women Tanya Rostron (Water to Work) and Wendy Shand (Tots to Travel). Tanya and Wendy were both truly inspirational and their generous presentations gave loads of practical advice instead of the usual focusing on individual “journeys” which is often a hallmark of keynote speakers.
There were lots of opportunities to network, but even so, I felt I only met a very small number of the peeps there… But those I did, like me, were thrilled to have the opportunity to network with others IRL rather than via cyberspace. I met some women that I have communicated with for years in cyberspace yet never actually met in the flesh. Since returning home, my Twitter account has been buzzing with new followers to tweet with, which is a fabulous and an unexpected positive outcome.
My gut feel is that the organisers (who did a sterling job) had made a decision to hold back a little this year and pilot this conference rather than run ahead of themselves. It was a great achievement to make the event happen at all. I read a lot about gatherings like the Mumpreneur Conference being a regular thang across the pond and we seem to be a bit behind with networking opportunities over here in the UK. I think that the event’s future is truly exciting and something I look forward to hearing more about. I expect the next Mumpreneur Conference will be massively popular in view of the feedback I’ve heard over the last 24 hours and I’ll be booking my ticket to it ASAP!
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Thanks for reviewing the conference, sounds great, can’t wait to hear who the award winners were. I decided my baby boy’s 4th birthday party was more important on Saturday but very much hope to go next year.
Alison,
Your gut feeling was right! I’ve never seen anything like this done over here, we didn’t know exactly what to expect, and we didn’t have as much time to organise it as we would have liked, so we limited the number of attendees to ensure we were on track ready for bigger and better next year! The feedback has been phenomenal, so we’re very excited at really going for it for 2010 (and with 12 months to organise this one, why not, eh?!)
Thanks for the review. I’m selecting a bit to put on the mumpreneur website now, if thats ok! Oh and thanks for running the seminar!
Amanda