Fewer People but Still A Good Time

So, yesterday was my first official full day at the convention. And.....?
Marketplace

The vendor hall / marketplace is dramatically smaller than it's been in years past. The word on the carpet is that the AMTA had a lot of trouble attracting vendors this year. It's close to half the size it was in Phoenix or Cleveland. There are still lots of equipment manufacturers and lotion purveyors. But virtually no new small/start-up companies.

The one new one that I think is kinda funny is a guy selling t-shirts and bumper stickers. His products are all screamingly left-wing, feminist, vegetarian, new age, and hippie. Which means I love it! But I haven't seen a collection like that in probably 20 years and that was at a women's music festival back in about 1990.

But he's doing a brisk business! :)

Massage Therapy Foundation Posters

They have bulletin boards with big displays on research projects sponsored by their foundation. I don't usually read them because we're still at the stage as an industry where we have to do research to "prove" that massage can be relaxing and help alleviate pain. (No, the medical community won't just take our word for it.) sigh

There's a display, though, about a program in Boston that provides free hand massage to homeless people in a city program in conjunction with a PT training program. I really liked what I read. I know there are MTs at the women's facility at Luther Place over in Logan Circle but I'm feeling myself drawn to Ward 6 and 7 in NE DC and I'm wondering....casually, lightly.....if my practice (whenever I start practicing again) might be able to do something like this there.

Hmmmmmmm.......

Old Familiar Faces

I ran into former PMTI Executive Director Demara Stamler! She's here with the organization she's currently with (an alternative accredidation for cosmetology, aesthetician, and massage schools, I think). She looks wonderful and seems very happy.

Learning, I'm Always Learning

One of the big attractions to the convention is the workshops. If you take a full slate over three days, you've earned 12 CEUs for the year. You can fulfill all your NCBTMB requirements simply by attending the AMTA convention each year and taking your courses here.

But of course, not every workshop is going to excite and inspire you. Some are well-presented. Some....not exactly. I've taken two so far (I'm blowing off the ethics course I signed up for this afternoon because I'd rather blog).

Building A Successful Massage Practice: I'm going to give it a grade of "C-". My biggest complaint is that I don't think the presenter did a good audience analysis first. She was a solo practitioner in PA for about 18 months (many years ago). She was the only MT in her town and was quickly swamped, so she started hiring other MTs and spent 10+ years running a massage-specific "spa" before she sold it.

Unfortunately, about half the room identified themselves as solo practitioners who had no desire to run a multi-therapist practice. And her whole presentationwas based on the assumption that we all are or want to be running a multi-therapist practice.

Woops.

Plus, her defintion of success boils down to "make heaps of money by following general business best practices".

Eh. It wasn't bad so much as not terribly useful.

Using Social Media: OK, I'm giving this guy an A+. Loved it! He's not an MT (and a Canadian to boot! Oh my!) ;) but he really did "get" that we tend to be small operations, tend to be behind the curve on technology, and don't have a lot of time for social media.

He was very clear, very organized, and very practical. I took tons of notes and now feel like I can actually make an intelligent decision about how to (and whether to) use Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn and other social media to support my practice.

It was exactly what it was billed to be and exactly what I needed.

Today I was supposed to take an Ethics class, which I'm blowing off. Tomorrow is an intensive session on arm and forearm pain (whose anatomy still confuses me) and emotional intelligence.

MT Body of Knowledge: Beth Carey (PMTI Director of Education) attended that. Biggest complaint was that she wasn't sure what we're all supposed to do with this thing.

MT Best Practices: Again, Beth Carey, and she gave it a big thumbs up.

Geriatric Massage: good reports from both Pauline Lockard and Robert Weidemeyer, both PMTI alum.

Hospital-Based Massage Therapy: Beth was disappointed that they weren't more specific about how to make a hospital-based program work.

The AMTA, in general

I'm going to differentiate between the AMTA membership and the AMTA official organization.

The membership is full of diverse, interesting, occasionally obstreperous, often goofy people doing the best they can. The conversations I overhear (or, OK, eavesdrop on) tend to be about "how do I do the best possible work for my client?".

The official organization still frustrates me. The whole message bulletin board thing continues to be a problem (see yesterday's post for the low-down on the blossoming Bulletin Board Fiasco).

• It turns out there are several more PMTI grads here and it would have been wonderful to invite them to the happy hour last night but we didn't know they were here and we had no good way to communicate with them.






The DC, VA, and MD AMTA chapters had their own impromptu happy hour last night that we probably would have folded ourselves intobut there was no good way to put that info out.

The organization has decided not to put room numbers on the tickets you get at registration for each of your workshops. Since they have always done that in the past, most attendees are discovering about 5 minutes before their first session that they have no idea where it is.

THAT information is in the daily "newspaper" that the organization is putting out and it's only available at the registration desk which most of us are not going back to after we've finished registering on the first day.

Unless they are making room assignments at the very last minute (and I don't get the impression that they are), what's the point? It can't be to save paper because it doesn't it. Maybe it's to "force" people to read the daily newspaper??

I would ask but I don't honestly expect a straight answer.

Massage! More Massage!

The bulk of the convention is planned, designed, and run by the national office. However, the local chapter (Minnesota in this case) always has a booth, arranges one evening outing, and hosts/staffs a massage room.

Because MTs are, on the whole, kinda crappy at making sure they're getting regular massage. :)

I always get a massage at the convention (even though I'm quite good at getting regular massages!!). The prices are reasonable and it's always nice to experience a different MTs work.

The space this year is laid out very nicely. It's in a big ballroom with cloth curtains (as always) but the practice rooms are huge (I measured; they're 12' x 12'. Our master bedrooom at home isn't that big!). They are nicely appointed (and you can buy all the appointments at a bundled price!), though they lack bolster (major oversight from my perspective).

And how was the massage? Not bad. It wasn't an Oh My God! kinda massage but she got the job done.

We were joking at the happy hour last night that it's impossible to just "get a massage" once you become an MT. We become kinda particular about the massage we get. We know what a good massage, a bad massage, and a great massage is. It's hard to be satisfied with even just a "good" massage if you've have access to great massages.

One of the things I've noticed in the last few years is that some MTs have a ... presence to them that makes a big difference in the session. From the moment they first put their hands on me, my body at some deep level says "ah, they know what they're doing, they will take care of me, and I can relax into this". Just by that first touch of their hands.

It's a special talent. I first noticed it at a seated massage kiosk (believe it or not) in the Glasgow Scotland airport. Ako Shigihara in DC has that special touch. I know I do too, though not all the time.

Today's MT didn't have it. And there were times I thought "she's going through the motions to fill out the time and it's kind of....boring" though the work was still ultimately effective.

Still glad I did it. My back and neck and feet are much happier than they were when I got up this morning. Even if it can't be a GREAT massage, I'll still be glad I got a good massage.

OK, time for lunch. More tomorrow!