After taking a break for Thanksgiving, we are back in full force with conference planning! Heath and I met with our new Conference Committee Chairs this past weekend. Thank you so much for stepping up! Mandy Keziah is our new PR Chair. Colleen Graham is our new Vendors Chair. Marcia Wingerd is our new Technology Chair. And Emily Golightly is our new Keynote Chair. During our meeting, we went over some basics about what their jobs will be, the expectations of the positions and communications, and then we answered questions. We hope this is the beginning of a fruitful, productive year of planning and fellowship.
The weekend prior, I met with Cindy (Heath was having technical difficulties) about the Benton space and how to plan the vendor room and session space and eating space. We’re thinking about moving the vendor hall downstairs so we can have more vendors in attendance. We did have to turn vendors away for this past conference because of the limited space for them. In the downstairs Piedmont Ballroom 3, we can have up to 44 vendors. That will also free up some space to have sessions. We would then be able to use the upstairs Winston 1 as three meeting spaces, giving us 10 rooms for sessions. ***But then I just looked at our contract again and we don’t have the downstairs Piedmont rooms at all on it. So we’re back to the drawing board…and e-mailing Benton to see what we can do. The fun never ends.
Seriously, it is not easy planning a conference. You have no idea how grateful I am for Heath, Cindy, Bitsy, and the entire conference planning team. My last e-mail had as the subject “I might be freaking out a little”. Which as everyone knows is going to be just great news. Stay tuned each week for more conference news!
