Freelance Business Sense

Did you know that attending the AMWA Annual Conference can generate thousands of dollars in revenue? That’s what happened for Christine Welniak, of the Empire State-New York Chapter, who made a point of meeting an online colleague for coffee at one annual conference. Six months later, the colleague referred her to a new client that generated $32,000 in billables in the first year. This same experience could happen to any of us (but, sadly, probably not all of us). Even if you don’t gain thousands in revenue, attending the AMWA Annual Conference will be your best business decision all year.

“Attending the AMWA annual conference is my most important marketing expense each year,” says Welniak. She adds that planning for revenue-generating expenses eases the pain of cash outlay. “I started putting money aside in my business savings account in July to pay for the hotel at the AMWA conference. That way, it’s just a little each month, and I won’t have to come up with a large sum all at once,” she says.

Welniak and Jeanne McAdara-Berkowitz, PhD, of the Rocky Mountain Chapter, who she met at another AMWA annual conference, will discuss their ecosystem approach to building relationships and generating referrals in their conference seminar “Cultivating Your Ecosystem to Build Your Business and Brand.” In this seminar, you will learn how to build and leverage a thriving ecosystem that markets your business for you.

Have You Registered Yet?

About 15% to 20% of AMWA members attend the Annual Conference each year. And 45% have never been to an AMWA Annual Conference. Never been!! Never taken advantage of this outstanding educational opportunity. Never networked with more medical communicators than ever gather anywhere else. As a member who attends every year, it’s hard to believe that a practicing medical communicator would miss out on this valuable experience. If you write or edit any type of document in the medical or health field, you can do your job better or more efficiently with what you learn at the AMWA Annual Conference. So why haven’t more of you registered?

According to those who do attend the conference, the number-one reason for attending is AMWA workshops. This year, more than 80 workshops are being offered, and they’re already filling up. People enrolled in AMWA’s certificate program recognize the value of workshops; 46% say they take workshops to enhance their professional credibility, and 42% say they take workshops to develop skills and expertise to improve their career or business prospects. These reasons apply even if you’re not enrolled in a certificate program—AMWA workshops are valuable individually, whether or not you take them to earn a certificate.

The popularity of AMWA workshops is reflected in early data on registration. Only a small fraction of our membership has registered so far, but already 10 workshops are nearly full. If any of the following workshops look good to you, you should register as soon as possible to make sure that you can participate.
• Advanced Data Presentation: Tables, Graphs, and Charts (Fri.)
• Clinical Study Report Writing: Tables, Listings, and Graphs to Text (Fri.)
• Current Trends in Drug Regulation (Fri.)
• Effective Paragraphing (Wed.)
• Essential Ethics for Medical Communicators (Fri.)
• Macroediting (Fri.)
• Proofreading (Wed.)
• Punctuation for Clarity and Style (Fri.)
• Statistics for Medical Writers and Editors (Thurs.)
• Writing the Final Report of a Clinical Trial (Wed.)

The Intensive Seminars are also filling up quickly. These new sessions are not part of AMWA’s workshops, but with a guest expert as the leader, limited attendance, and a longer-than-usual duration (2.75 hours), they offer an enhanced educational experience. You can select from “Create Visibility and Influence to Fast Track Your Career” (Wednesday), “The P.A.T.H. from Writer to Consultant” (Thursday), and “Seek and Find: NLM PubMed Is Only the Beginning” (Friday). Actually, we scheduled them on different days so you can take all three if you want! Learn more about these seminars in the registration brochure.

Roundtable discussions always fill quickly because of limited seating. More than 60 roundtable discussions will be held over breakfast (Thursday) or lunch (Friday). Check out the list of roundtables on pages 17-21 and 41-45 of the registration brochure. Surely at least one discussion interests you.

So, reserve your seat(s) now! Visit the AMWA website for easy online registration. Become part of the 20%. Maybe together, we can turn the tide and make a majority of members who attend.

We want to see you in Columbus. Expand your horizons and join us!