“What am I going to do after this?
“What am I going to do after this?That’s a quote I found on a post the other day Five ways to battle post-event depression: Life after an event. Some good advice here.
This is my last blog for Corporate Meetings Network. It’s been a great ride, and I’m forever grateful to Steven Chester, Sean Moon and their team for giving me this platform to discuss the meetings profession from my perspective and to allow me to hone my writing skills.
So, what am I going to do after this? Well, I’m pretty much retired, and I just can’t sit back and do nothing! So, I’m taking all my previous skills that I learned in the meetings profession and in my teaching those who want to be in the profession.
I’m going to write a book, but I’m not going to divulge any details here. Enough to say it’s been a work in progress for many years and has undergone many incarnations. I have to laugh at myself; five years ago I had the absolute opportunity to fulfill a dream – I rented an apartment in Paris for five weeks and took a four-week course in French at the Sorbonne. I took all my materials with me and I was going to write every night. Well, I’m sure you can guess what happened. Not a word, nada!
Now I’m serious. I’ve been doing webinars on writing for the last six months, am about to embark on a writing group led by a woman who teaches journalism at Ryerson, and in November, I’m going to immerse myself in the world of writing. I’m attending a yoga and writing workshop in Costa Rica. Needless to say I’m quite excited. And I’m writing about two hours a day, four days a week.
The most important lesson I’ve learned so far:
The business of writing and publishing is different than the art of writing. Kind of like a conference or event right?
As I close this last post, I’d like to go back to the Five ways to battle post-event depression. For me, when I first started, after planning for about nine months, once it was all over, I almost felt like I had postpartum depression (sorry to the men and those women who have never had a child). It would take me a few days to get over it. We worked so hard to make it happen, and then poof, it was over! I’ve gotten over that, and I suspect writing this book will have much the same effect on me. I can’t wait!
So, to the next generation of event planning professionals: it’s in your hands; be a pro; never let the passion flag.
