As I mentioned previously, the Creative Freelancer Conference was very inspirational, and gave me a new perspective on life as a creative small business owner.
I am a member of the listserv for the American Medical Writers Association, a group of people who, for the most part, are hard-core medical writers. These are people with MD, PhD and PharmD degrees, the kind of people who write clinical manuscripts and debate some seriously technical issues. The work that I do only partially overlaps with this group, but I still find the discussions to be interesting and informative.
Earlier today, another freelance writer posted a business-oriented question. Still being on a high from my experience in Chicago, I had no problem sharing my insights from the conference.
I didn’t expect to get such an overwhelming response.
Dozens of emails came in, both on- and off-list, asking me for more information. “There’s a conference for freelancers? When is the next one? Why didn’t I know about this? What else did you learn?” Many have already signed up for information about next year’s event.
I seem to have taken on the role of Conference Evangelist for a specialized niche, one that I wouldn’t have initially thought to be interested in a “creative” conference. Lesson learned. I will never underestimate freelancers’ inherent thirst for knowledge. But perhaps more importantly, I shouldn’t underestimate the comfort that comes with knowing that even though your work may keep you isolated, you’re not alone.