The Special Event Conference - San Diego

I am posting from my hotel room here in lovely San Diego. I am attending The Special Event Conference, and it has been great so far. Basically, you sign up and attend different seminars during the day, and at night, there are different parties being put on all around the downtown area where we are. I've learned so much, and met so many people in the industry!

Yesterday, my classes consisted of Wedding Disasters and How to Avoid Them. Even though they had some crazy stories (an aunt passed away during one reception, yikes) I felt I could actually outdo them on some of my own stories. I did take away from it though a few more key things to add to my emergency kit. Then I went to a seminar put on by some of our Bay Area colleagues about taking a wedding concept and working it through the entire event, even down to the food, dessert and bar stations. Stations are becoming more and more popular as a way to save some money while planning a large wedding and choosing not to have a seated plated meal. I even went to a class on whether or not to do reality TV, as I've been approached to do a few shows in the past, and usually it didn't work out since I was either already booked, or I didn't have an underage teen getting married who was pregnant (hello, MTV). After that, I attended a class that really didn't help too much, as once you start a business, you know the basics. This was really for people that do wedding planning as a hobby, not their full time career. Not much to learn there, since this is what I do 24/7. The last seminar of the day was How to Be a Good Planner, or something in that realm. It was very informative, and there were about 250 other planners from all over the country and sharing stories, and also creative ways we've all handled certain uncomfortable situations was great to hear.

The Special Event then hosted an amazing party at Stingaree, a great club right across the street from our hotel. We were feted with drinks, and so many tasty delights (too bad a few of us already ate before hand!). It was nice to meet people from all over that do the same work we do. Many of them are the ones you see on TV doing celebrity weddings, reality wedding show, etc., so it's always nice to hear that their challenges are the same as ours.

I am excited to visit the trade show today of all the vendors that are displaying their work. Then I have a few more seminars, a quick dinner at Nobu with some friends, then back on the plane to San Francisco tonight. The conference lasts until Friday, but there is just too much work that needed to be done back at the office, so two days was all I could spare. I am looking forward to implementing some of my new discoveries in some of the 2009 weddings I have, and also into my business.

Happy Planning!
kathryn