Not just another streamfest…

Helping every step of the way, from concept to strong manuscript to wise publication and a happy fandom!

The Online Writers Conference is only eight days away and I am nervous and excited at the same time. We already have hundreds of people registered for it, and our preparations are coming along pretty well. This will be my first time interviewing anyone on a live stream: I've been a guest on radio shows and podcasts but never hosted one before. I've interviewed plenty of people, but always in a private context; I've moderated some panel discussions, but only in person with an audience I could hear and see. So this is breaking new ground for me, personally.

It seems that Russell and I will also be breaking new ground in the nascent world of online conferences too, as far as we can tell. There just aren't very many of them, at least compared to the number of in-person conferences that were all canceled so recently. We see online conferences popping up now, but it's still a new untried thing. Heck, the URL "Online Writers Conference" was available when we searched for it.

But we aren't just trying to be early adopters in a new field. We are trying to create a broader, deeper "virtual conference" experience than one usually finds online. The "conferences" I've seen have been limited to one live-stream platform and about four or five hours of content over the course of a single day. And frankly, they often seem boring.

We are using StreamYard to live-stream to three separate platforms simultaneously: Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. We could stream to more platforms like Instagram Live and even LinkedIn if we had huge followings there and wanted to include those fans, but we don't. (If you prefer a streaming platform that we didn't choose, please email us and make a case for adding it!)
We are offering six hours of continuous content for each day of the conference, combining panel discussions with seasoned veterans and Keynote Conversations with highly respected authors in various genres and fields.
Concurrent with the live-stream broadcast we will have a series of breakout sessions (using the latest version of Zoom) for participants who want to put into practice what they have just heard, or continue a conversation with a panelist who is willing to hang out and chat after their broadcast hour.
Possible additional breakout sessions could host writing sprints during the Saturday writing-focused lineup, and then pitch sessions with agents and acquisition editors during the Sunday publishing-focused lineup.

The additional breakout sessions depend heavily on the confluence of supply and demand. If you are a writing coach and want to lead a writing sprint on Saturday, or if you are an agent looking for new talent and want to host a pitch session on Sunday, don't hesitate to email me. And if you are an author interested in improving your focus and word count, or interested in pitching your finished manuscript to a publisher, definitely email me. If there is high enough demand for either coaching or pitching, I'll be able to recruit those coaches and agents. If there are agents, editors, and coaches willing to host those sessions, I'll have specific sessions that I can pitch to all the writers and authors who have registered for this conference by the hundreds.

In all these ways we are pushing the boundaries of the common online conference. Please spread the word by telling others about The Online Writers Conference, tweeting and posting about it, and sharing the things Russell and I write about it. With your participation, we can create something meaningful together, a conference that will help you create something meaningful too.

That's been my driving purpose for these first fifteen years of Wordsmith Writing Coaches!

The Online Writers Conference: Helping you every step of the way, from clear concept, to strong manuscript, to wise publication, and to a happy fandom!

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