As a blogger, I’m committed to sharing all types of information that might benefit you in Your Organizing Business, so when I heard about the recent National Association of Senior Move Managers conference, I was eager to invite an attendee to tell us about it in a guest blog post. Robin Blinder was happy to oblige, and I’m pleased to welcome her here today.

The annual conference of the National Association of Senior Move Managers was in Austin, Texas this month – January 12^th through the 15^th.  As a professional organizer who is also a senior move manager, this conference is one of the ways I continue to educate myself, recharge my business batteries, and network with those throughout the country whose professional life has taken the same fork in the road.  This was my second NASMM Conference, and once again, NASMM did not disappoint.

First, the venue – the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas – was a wonderful place to attend a conference.  Great halls for the nearly 400 attendees to gather for keynote sessions, meals, and events like the 10^th Birthday Party of NASMM, excellent rooms for breakout sessions, and a myriad of open meeting areas for networking and small group meetings.  Austin showed up with weather that was warm enough for walks along the river or across the bridge.  And there were plenty of restaurants and nightspots to visit with new friends or old friends reunited.  Fun times!

This year’s educational sessions were superb.  I started out my conference time with Thursday’s pre-conference sessions – “Speak Up! And Present Your Way to Success” and “Winning Sales Strategies for Senior Move Managers.”  Both sessions, taught by renown experts in our field, gave me tons of ah-ha moments & things I could implement to grow my business.

There were four keynote general sessions – one more than last year, and each of them touched a different area of my business.  Friday’s opening keynote, “Differentiate and Dominate” by John Jantsch of “Duct Tape Marketing” fame, helped us to think of our business and our marketing strategy in a whole new way.  Saturday’s keynote, “My Client Has Dementia: Now What?” by Teepa Snow, was phenomenal.  Teepa delivered some tough information in a very entertaining way.  Sunday’s keynotes, Jeremy Solomon’s keynote on dealing with diversity in the aging market and Tim Richardson’s “Rich Service” presentation, both gave me a number of take-away points to apply.

But that wasn’t all!  The 24 breakout sessions during the conference were so rich that I bought the CDs in order to catch the sessions that I wasn’t able to attend.  The topics hit on business topics like marketing, sales, human resource & finance, tactical topics for SMMs like estimating, space planning, and disbursing client belongings, and client-centered topics such as family communication, client “potholes,” and decision-making.  There was definitely something for everyone, and many of the sessions also applied to my organizing business.

If you’re a Senior Move Manager and have not attended NASMM’s Annual Conference, join us in St. Petersburg next January 20^th-23^rd and experience for yourself the tremendous value it brings to you and your business.  If you’re a NAPO or ICD member and have thought about adding senior move management to your services, come to St. Petersburg and see what this growing field can add to your business.  Hope to see you next January in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida!