Last month I attended the National Nurses In Business Association Conference! This was my first major conference of
this type and debut for me as an entrepreneur. I met a lot of wonderful
people and made hopefully life long connections. I also enjoyed some
down time too! As a first timer and one of the newest attendees environment, connecting, and confirmation stood out to me.
Environment
In my opinion where you have a conference is just as important as who you
have there and the #NNBA organizers understand that. We stayed at the lovely Orlando Area Embassy Suites fitted with spacious rooms made to order omelets, water feature, business center, and spa/pool to name a few amenities. Every night I slept in a wonderful bed and was impressed with
the cleanliness of the facilities. It made for a relaxing reflective
environment.
Connecting
As I said I met a lot of
intriguing, fascinating, and like minded people with a can do entrepreneurial
and business spirit. It was nice to be apart of ; meeting legends of the
online nursing world I would probably never meet under normal circumstance. It was even more humbling that they were real down to earth people. We laughed,hugged, and reflected together. I also meet everyday heroes and that was a treat in itself. If nothing
else I hope these connections continue as friendships with us growing and supporting each other in every step.
Confirmation
While I learned a lot about the different business opportunities I got
confirmation on what I was already doing by trusting my gut. In fact at one point I started writing down the lessons I learned before the conference
with the ones repeated at the NNBA. Now I have a blue print on what areas to focus on so that I may have a growing and thriving business.
Tips for Newbies
- Prepare before the conference with business cards, flyers, and ideas. You never know who you will meet and what opportunities will come to you.
- Talk to someone who has attended the conference before and/or knows someone who is attending. I did both and this helped me take a lot of the guess work out on how to best prepare for whatever opportunities were awaiting me.
- Relax..be yourself!!!! The authentic you is much better than a pretender.
- Network in a way that plays to your strengths. For me this meant talking to conference attendees one on one building connections.
Take Care,
~ Raqui
Glad that you had a positive experience Raqui :) Feel free to post this blog in the Nurseup forum on Facebook, have pictures of the conference there as well. https://www.facebook.com/groups/nurseup/photos/
ReplyDeleteLike your tips on coming prepared to the conference :) Same goes for meeting people online as well. There are a huge number of nurse entrepreneurs on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. Lots of people to connect with if you know where to look. One of our goals with the Nurseup forum is to help make those connections.
ReplyDeleteEncourage everyone to stop by, introduce yourselves, ask your questions. We are a friendly bunch with many seasoned nurses, entrepreneurs among us.
Thank you. Nurse entrepreneurs are so friendly! Especially you Andrew:)
DeleteCongratulations on your debuted. You deserve it! Thank you for this informative post. Hope you will join us on the Nurseup forum.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Leah. Hope you come back soon. Glad the post gave you some insight on the National Nurses In Business Association Conference.
DeleteIt was great meeting you and the other nurses who I've "met" via the social media super highway! Love connecting with others!
ReplyDeleteRenee
Love it:! : "social media super highway"
DeleteGreat post and I'm so glad you had a good experience, I hope to make it there next year also, would love to me you in person. Keep up the great work, you are definitely going places!
ReplyDelete*cheers*
Tina
Looking forward to meeting you in person too. Thanks for your kind words.
DeleteThanks everyone for the feedback!!!! It was truly a pleasure meeting everyone and I can't wait to see where these relationships take us.
ReplyDelete