Later this month I’m going to two writing conferences: a href=”http://www.writersdigestconference.com/”Writer’s Digest Conference/a and a href=”http://www.scbwi.org/Conference.aspx?Con=7″SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) Winter Conference/a, both in NYC. I attended the last two SCBWI Winter Conferences so I’m excited to go again. This will be my first time at the Writer’s Digest Conference. The fact that they are on back-to-back weekends isn’t ideal but I’m still glad I registered for both.a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GbnLvJG2HWg/TSun5JVoyVI/AAAAAAAABh0/kj54OApESas/s1600/scbwi-logo.gif”/adivdivbr //div divConferences are expensive and eat up your entire weekend, but they can definitely be worth the time and money spent./divdivbr //divdivimg style=”float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 304px; height: 86px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GbnLvJG2HWg/TSun5Yz98XI/AAAAAAAABh8/7DodqiFeloI/s400/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-01-10%2Bat%2B7.43.15%2BPM.png” border=”0″ alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560722769273811314″ //divdivFor one, bthey’re super inspiring./b One of my favorite parts of conferences is hearing from keynote speakers, who are usually established authors/illustrators or big names in the publishing industry. At the last two SCBWI conferences, I heard Jay Asher, Libba Bray, Richard Jackson, Bruce Hale, Jack Gantos, Jacqueline Woodson, Jim Benton and Jane Yolen speak. It’s impossible to hear these people and not feel invigorated and happy to be a writer. Their talks are always positive and make me feel like I can be as successful as them someday./divdivbbr //b/divdivThen there are theb lessons from the experts./b Editors and agents attend these conferences just to give advice to writers. The panels are always so informative. You get to hear multiple perspectives on the state of the publishing industry, what’s selling and what they look for, and the querying process. The awesome part is that the agents and editors invite attendees to submit to them for a period of time after the conference, which increases the chances of your manuscript getting noticed./divdivbimg style=”float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 332px; height: 129px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GbnLvJG2HWg/TSuoWMWv-SI/AAAAAAAABiE/OOH8nwD0jsk/s400/scbwi-logo.gif” border=”0″ alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560723264146241826″ //b/divdivbr //divdivConferences are also a great way to bmeet other writers/b, though I admit this is an area I need to work on. In the past, I’ve gone to conferences with my writing buddy and we’ve kept to ourselves. No longer! This year, we’re going to make a bigger effort to chat with other conference attendees. What better place is there to make other writer friends! And if you go to conferences that focus on your specific genre (in my case, children’s books) you can meet other people who read and write the same types of books as you. /divdivbr //divdivdivThere are other benefits to conferences, like the chance to pitch to agents and get your work critiqued. I’m not bringing any of my work this time around, but I hope to walk out with extra motivation to finish my first draft. /divdivbr //divdivAnyone else going to either of these conferences? Shoot me an email at a href=”mailto:ghenetwrites@gmail.com” target=”_blank”spanspan/span/span/aspanspanghenetwrites {at} gmail {dot} com and/span/span I’ll keep an eye out for you! If you won’t be there, followspanspan me on twitter /span/spana href=”http://twitter.com/#!/Ghenet”@ghenet/a and I’ll tweet the highlights. I’ll also blog about what I’ve learned in February./div/divdivbr //divdivbHave you gone to a writing conference? What do you like most about them?/b/div /div