Creative Freelancer Conference

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I’ll be in San Diego Wed.-Fri. (Aug. 26-28) for the second annual Creative Freelancer Conference (sponsored by HOW Magazine and Marketing Mentor). I attended last year’s conference and got a lot out of it. Even though I’ve been freelancing for well over a decade I picked up quite a few tips and tricks for how to run my business better, and came away inspired to take my career to the next level. The seminars and workshops look to be just as helpful this year, if not more so.

Topics to be covered include:

  • What Will Your Freelance Business Be When It Grows Up? (Petrula Vrontikis)
  • Money-Saving Tax Solutions for Creatives (June Walker)
  • The Essential Rules for Writing and Presenting Proposals (Peleg Top)
  • Effective Presentations for Creative Solopreneurs (Darryl Salerno)
  • Dealing With Nightmare Clients (Michelle Goodman)
  • The Astoundingly Simple Secrets to Making Social Media Work For You (Colleen Wainwright)
  • Freelance Success Panel (moderated by Ilise Benun)
  • Speaker Panel Q&A (moderated by Ilise Benun)
  • Create or Die: Thriving in the Create-On-Demand World (Todd Henry)
  • Workshop: Hands-On Marketing Lab (Ilise Benun)
  • Workshop: The Price Is Right (Lee Silber & Peleg Top)

If you make your living freelancing or are thinking about freelancing as a career, it would be well-worth your time and money to attend. According to the conference website there’s still time to register if you are one of those last-minute types. Hope to see you there!

Creative Freelancer Conference Is Coming

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The second annual Creative Freelancer Conference (sponsored by HOW Magazine and Marketing Mentor) will be held in San Diego August 26-28, 2009. I attended last year’s conference in Chicago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though I’ve been freelancing for over twelve years I still picked up quite a few tips and tricks. As a result of what I learned I’ve been able to give my clients an even higher level of professional service. I also learned a few ways to boost my bottom line. I only wish this conference had been available back when I started my business.

This year’s lineup of speakers and topics was recently announced. There’s a lot of new stuff that wasn’t on the line-up last year which means I’ll definitely be attending again.

Topics to be covered include:

  • What Will Your Freelance Business Be When It Grows Up? (Petrula Vrontikis)
  • Money-Saving Tax Solutions for Creatives (June Walker)
  • The Essential Rules for Writing and Presenting Proposals (Peleg Top)
  • Effective Presentations for Creative Solopreneurs (Darryl Salerno)
  • Dealing With Nightmare Clients (Michelle Goodman)
  • The Astoundingly Simple Secrets to Making Social Media Work For You (Colleen Wainwright)
  • Freelance Success Panel (moderated by Ilise Benun)
  • Speaker Panel Q&A (moderated by Ilise Benun)
  • Create or Die: Thriving in the Create-On-Demand World (Todd Henry)
  • Workshop: Hands-On Marketing Lab (Ilise Benun)
  • Workshop: The Price Is Right (Lee Silber & Peleg Top)

If you register before July 15 you’ll receive an early-bird discount of $50. Register or get more info at www.creativefreelancerconference.com.

Creative Freelancer Conference Audio Now Available

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If you missed the 2008 Creative Freelancer Conference in Chicago, you missed some terrific info about how to manage your freelance career and build your business.

Have no fear. You can now purchase and download the audio and materials from all the presentations, whether you attended the conference or not. You’ll get MP3 audio recordings, session handouts, and each speaker’s PowerPoint presentation files. Each session can be purchased separately at $24 each, or you can get the entire package for $147.00 (which is almost like getting two of the sessions for free).

Topics include:

  • Secrets of a Successful Solopreneur (Ilise Benun and Peleg Top)
  • Creative Collaboration Workshop (Dyana Valentine)
  • How to Get Clients to Fall in Love With You (Joan Gladstone)
  • Building a Well-Oiled Marketing Machine (Ilise Benun and Colleen Wainwright)
  • How to Talk to Your Clients About Fees (Peleg Top)
  • A Quick and Dirty Look at Proposals and Contracts (Lloyd Dangle)
  • How to Find Time to Build Your Freelance Business (Lee Silber)
  • Reaping the Rewards of Creative Independence (Jeff Fisher)

The website even offers a 365-day money back guarantee: “If you don’t see an amazing improvement in your business within a year from the date you order, simply contact us for a full refund. The audio materials, handouts, and presentations will still be yours to keep as our thanks for giving the Complete Conference On Demand a try.”

Of course that means you have to wait a year to get your money back, but I’m guessing you won’t need to. I found most of the presentations to be very helpful. The talks on “Creative Collaboration” and “Reaping the Rewards” didn’t particularly hit me where I was at, but if you buy the whole package you basically get those two for free anyway. “How To Talk To Your Clients About Fees” was my favorite seminar and pretty much anything from Ilise Benun or Peleg Top was terrific. The rest of the presenatations were also very good.

Finally, next year’s conference will be Aug. 26-28 in San Diego. Mark your calendars!

More From The Creative Freelancer Conference

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My head is still swimming with all the information I tried to soak in last week at the 2008 Creative Freelancer Conference in Chicago. Fortunately it has been officially announced that MP3 audio recordings of all of the seminars will be available for purchase soon, likely sometime in the next few weeks. I’ll post a link as soon as they are available.

One of the books I picked up at the conference is The Designer’s Guide to Marketing And Pricing: How to Win Clients and What to Charge Them (Amazon.com link) co-authored by two of the key presenters, Ilise Benun and Peleg Top from Marketing Mentor. I’ve only read portions of the book, but so far I can say this is one of the best books on self-promotion and pricing that I’ve seen in a while. It’s a detailed primer covering the nuts-and-bolts of finding the right clients, networking, pricing your work, and lots of advice on what to say (and what not to say) when negotiating a project so that you appear as professional as possible. The chapter on how to talk to clients about money is well worth the price of the book. While primarily targeted at graphic designers, there is a wealth of helpful information most of which could easily apply to illustrators, photographers, web designers, etc.

Another book I picked up at the conference is Identity Crisis! (Amazon.com link) by Jeff Fisher. Fisher is a graphic designer specializing in logos, and his new book details the process he went through on 50 different client projects transforming old logos and identities into new and successful brands. Each chapter shows the client’s old logo, the new logo (and other collateral material), and discusses the process Fisher went through with each client. Fun stuff for anyone interested in logos and identity work.

Finally, designer Ian Arsenault has posted a bunch of photos from the conference on his Facebook page. Give them a looksee to see how much fun everyone had. Ya should’a been there!

Free Articles from CreativeFreelancerConference.com

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The first annual Creative Freelancer Conference is now history. The speakers were terrific, the seminars were loaded with great info, and it was refreshing to spend three days surrounded by other people who understand the excitement and struggles of freelancing. I came home with my head swimming with ideas on how to take my freelance career to the next level.

I’ve been freelancing for eleven years, and frankly I came to the conference with some nagging doubts about the future of my career and wondering if I had “topped out”. I came away excited that there is still a long way for me to climb. There are things I’ve been doing wrong all these years, and other areas where I can improve that will help me land dream clients and grow my income.

We were told that notes and slides from some of the seminars will soon be available online. Each seminar was also recorded, which I hope means that there will soon be audio downloads available for sale. I’ll be sure to post links to any conference content once it becomes available.

In the mean time, there are thirty terrific articles on the Creative Freelancer Conference website that will give you a taste of what the conference had to offer. They are very helpful and completely free to read. If you are serious about freelancing and want to get better clients and make more money, these articles offer some terrific advice.

Creative Freelancer Conference starts today

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Sorry for the lag in posts lately. Last week I was on vacation with my family, and this week I’m in Chicago for a client meeting followed by the first annual Creative Freelancer Conference. The conference starts this afternoon, and I’m very excited about it. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of other creatives, doing a little networking, and soaking up tons of great info and advice on how to take my freelance business to the next level.

For those of you who can’t attend the conference, I’m told that at least some of the speakers’ presentations will eventually be for sale as MP3 downloads. If that’s indeed the case, as soon as I find out I’ll post a link to the content here on my blog.