by Tammy Karasek @TickledPinkTam

We are days away from the 2019 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference—yes days, folks! Are you as excited as I am?

By now, you have gone through your checklist of things you need to pack. Hopefully, you have read all of the wonderful blog posts here on this site that shared great advice on what to expect once there. If you haven’t read the post about bringing your business cards, read What Goes On a Writer’s Business Card here.

Today I have another helpful tool for you when attending conferences. It answers this question: now that I’m home, what do I do with all of these business cards I’ve collected? And you do need to collect those cards.

In 2011 I attended my first writing conference. I followed the suggestion to have business cards. Once there, I was trading those cards like we did those senior pictures back in high school. Only now we don’t sign them with BFF, LYLAS, TFA, etc. (For those men out there, the translation is Best Friends Forever, Love You Like A Sis and True Friends Always.)

I came home that first conference, connected through all the social media sites with my new friends, put a rubber band on the card bundle and put them in a drawer. Repeated again over the next several years with more and more conferences and workshops. I filled my drawer.

Being a lover of networking, a new friend was talking about needing an editor. My brain immediately remembered meeting an editor I thought would be a great fit. The cards, I thought. I returned home, dumped the drawer of rubber-banded cards and wondered how in the world I would figure out which little packet the card was in that I wanted. After 30 minutes, I found the card.

But I thought, this is crazy, there’s got to be a better way to organize these business cards.

A few days later while digging in the clearance section at Staples, I found a bunch of business card holders that you put into a 3-ring binder for 25 cents per packet. I picked them all up and put them in my cart. I continued to shop but kept looking at them and wondered why I would want to put my cards in these to carry around. For the price, I bought them anyway. Once home, I saw a pile of recent conference cards and the light went on—not my cards, the collected ones.

I began my Notebook of New Friends back with the little rubber-banded packet from 2011. I filed all of those cards in the card pockets in chronological order. On the very first pocket, I used a small, thin post-it-note and labeled with the conference and year. I continued all the way through that drawer of cards, filling the notebook.

Now, when I go to a conference, I place all the cards on my desk next to my computer screen. I go through them the following week making the social connections we promise each other we will do, and then file them into the book.

I have dug through that book many times looking for a card. Sometimes I remember which conference I met the person I’m looking for and can go right to that section. Other times, I will have to flip through a couple pages to find them. But it sure beats going through the packets of cards looking for that card.

Might I also suggest that while you are at a conference and swapping cards with a new writerly friend, if they are an editor, web designer, proofreader etc.—ask for a second card to share with someone who might be looking for that assistance in their writing. You never know when you could be the connector of people.

What about you? How have you handled your Business Card collection? We’d love to hear other ways you organize your collected cards.

It’s not too late!
To make reservations for BRMCWC 2019 please call 1.800.588.7222

You’ll find Tammy seeing humor and causing laughter in every aspect of life. Her past, filled with bullying and criticism from family, is the driving force of her passion to always encourage others and give them The Reason to smile. She’s been married to her college sweetheart, Larry, for 37 years, a mom to their grown daughter, Kristen, and wrapped around the paw of a little dog named Hattie. Born and raised in Ohio, her family now resides in South Carolina. She is the President of Word Weavers Upstate SC, member of ACFW and My Book Therapy/Novel Academy. She’s the Blog Editor for Word Weavers International. A Conference Assistant for Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference. A monthly contributor for The Write Conversation. A contributor in the 2018 Divine Moments Compilation Book—Cool-inary Moments. Also a regular contributor to several other blogs.

Connect with Tammy: Blog: http://www.tammykarasek.com  Email: tickledpinktammy@gmail.com