One of the greatest things about this profession to me is all the regional and national conventions and meetings.<\/p>\n
I belong to AMTA<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>and I am very active in my state chapter. I’m usually fortunate enough to get asked to teach a class at our meetings, but I’m going to be there either way. I wouldn’t miss it for anything. I also attend the National Convention every year, and it’s just a blast. Being around a thousand or more people who do what you do is something you should experience, if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n This past year I attended the World Massage Festival<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in Kentucky and I participated in the awesome World Massage Conference<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a> which is a totally virtual event…both events were highlights of my year. I also went to the inaugural meeting of the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. I skipped the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards<\/strong><\/span><\/a> meeting last year due to some conflicts, but I’m hoping to hit that one this year, too. I just got back from attending the Massage School Makeover event in Miami. In 2011 I am also looking forward to the American Massage<\/strong> Conference<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in Atlanta, the World Massage Festival<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in Cullowhee, Vivian Madison-Mahoney<\/a><\/strong><\/span>‘s Take it to the Top Summit in Gatlinburg, the AMTA<\/a><\/strong><\/span> National Convention in Portland, another World Massage Conference<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and who knows what else is going to materialize! They are all great events, and they all have one thing in common: massage therapists!<\/p>\n I have in the past borrowed a favorite phrase from my friend and colleague Felicia Brown<\/a><\/strong><\/span>: collaborative competition. <\/em>Normally I use that in the context of therapists themselves.\u00a0 This time, I’m speaking of all these meetings. Many times at these meetings, I run into a lot of the same folks. It’s actually one of the nicest things about attending–besides seeing old friends, there’s also the added benefit of making new friends and potentially advantageous business contacts.<\/p>\n When it comes to these events, I take the same attitude that I do with massage in general, and that is there’s enough to go around. <\/em>I’ve complained before about meetings that don’t welcome certain organizations to their events, and I will continue to do so.\u00a0 I am not shy about expressing my opinion. Feel free to disagree with me if you want to. I’m not insulted by that. I wouldn’t be writing these blogs if I didn’t have a thick skin. I don’t like professional jealousy–I actually think of it as un-professional jealousy–when it comes to massage therapists, and I don’t like it any better when it comes to conventions and meetings. I think there’s enough to go around.<\/p>\n I think ALL events that are about massage therapy are a great thing. Each is unique in its own way.\u00a0 Some cost more than others…some are geared at different purposes. I guess it’s the American way of marketing to claim that one is better than another. That’s not how I roll. To me, they are all great networking opportunities. Just like my opinion that no one organization is entitled to a monopoly, I’m happy that there’s more than one meeting. ABMP<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, which I am also a member of, doesn’t put on a national convention (although they do have a national school summit meeting every year.) One of the things I look forward to at AMTA<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>National is seeing my friends from ABMP who attend.\u00a0 Even though AMTA doesn’t allow them to have a booth in the exhibit hall, as they are a competing membership organization, lots of my ABMP friends are there. It’s not about them<\/em>; it’s about massage. Networking, continuing education, product education, legislation and other information…it’s all<\/em> valuable.<\/p>\n Sometimes at one meeting, I get invited to, or at least informed of, another meeting. Don’t forget attendance at these events is tax deductible, folks! I can’t afford to attend every single thing that comes around, but if I could, I’d be at all of them. So if you have something going on I don’t know about, post it in the comments. I like to be here, there, and everywhere, and maybe I’ll see you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes at one meeting, I get invited to, or at least informed of, another meeting. Don’t forget attendance at these events are tax deductible, folks! I can’t afford to attend every single thing that comes around, but if I could, I’d be at all of them. So if you have something going on I don’t know about, post it in the comments. I like to be here, there, and everywhere, and maybe I’ll see you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299,8,6,4,273,5,3],"tags":[16,17,112,15,113,21,116,115,114,111,68],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conventions-and-meetings","category-education","category-legislation-of-massage","category-marketing","category-massage-associations","category-massage-therapy","category-politics-of-massage","tag-abmp","tag-afmte","tag-american-massage-conference","tag-amta","tag-felicia-brown","tag-fsmtb","tag-national-convention","tag-take-it-to-the-top-summit","tag-vivian-madison-mahoney","tag-world-massage-conference","tag-world-massage-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3867,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/3867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}