Mobs and Mobs of MTs!

Sitting in Milwaukee, waiting for my connecting flight to Minneapolis and the American Massage Therapy Association annual convention! Hundreds of massage therapists wandering loose in one space!

Chaos and mayhem may well ensue. Actually, I think we can count on it, at least a little bit. :)

I really look forward to these conventions every year. I know a lot of MTs don't see the point of spending the time, money, and energy but I always find it worth it. I meet cool people who give me a whole new perspective on what it means to be an MT. I take interesting courses. I get the buzz that comes from being surrounded by people dedicated to their professional lives. I get to see a new city (OK, I travel to Minneapolis regularly so it's not as new to me) and....

.....I get to shop!

Honestly, I'm not normally a big shopping kinda gal (OK, admittedly, except for books). But it's just so nice to have all these massage-centric vendors in one place. I've never really found a massage "store" anywhere in the real world (not online) where I can cruise and peruse. But the vendor hall at these conventions is just so fun and interesting. At least half of it is stuff I am never ever going to buy for any reason whatsoever. But there's always stuff that's just interesting to check out and there's always something I end up buying.

(Plus, yes, they have lots and lots of books!) :)

This year, I have a couple of concrete goals for the convention, apart from the continuing ed and the PMTI happy hour.

- Talk to Lippincott, Wilkins, and Williams (the Big Name publisher in our biz) about the business book I'm writing and what it would take to get them to publish it.

- Meet and interview MTs who are running multi-therapist practices about their experiences as "the boss" for aforementioned business book.

- See if there are any other published authors there who can give me a realistic set of expectations about publishing in the massage industry (do I need an agent? Where does one find that particular creature?)

- Talk to the education chairs for a couple of state chapters to see if they would be interested in sponsoring Kitty and I to teach Energy 101 for their chapter. (Damn, that's the promo material I was supposed to pull together before I left. Oh well!) (sigh, I probably should have brought more professional-grade clothing with me.)

- Blog the experience for your viewing pleasure. :)

Now that I see those goals in writing, um, that's a lot ot accomplish in 3 days.....I have been accused of over-scheduling before and it looks like Australia hasn't cured me of that habit just yet.

But I'm jazzed and this is the perfect environment for me to do some important things so I'll just do what I can and see what happens. Kind of like the rest of my life.

Stay tuned....