By: Giselle General

This past weekend, from June 2 – 4, 2023 I had the great fortune of attending the weekend-long annual conference organized by the Writers Guild of Alberta. They titled their conference this year “Origins: A Return to Networking, Publishing, Genre and Craft.” It’s a hybrid conference, with the in-person location at Fort Calgary and the keynotes and focus workshops available to attend online.

Frankly when I first heard of the conference through the e-newsletter from Writers Guild of Alberta, I was already checking my budget. I started a new job recently so my bank account is not draining anymore and I had full intention of finding a way to pay for it. Then, good news came. As I was a mentee of the Horizon Writers Circle this year, the conference was covered for free. There was even a travel allowance! This prompted a conversation among my fellow mentees to travel together from Edmonton to Calgary.

I agonized for a while on how to attend for two main reasons. I’m learning to be more kind to myself and be more conscious of my precious and limited energy for socializing. I haven’t attended a multi-day conference since November 2018 and I found it exhausting. If I wanted to focus on learning, I need to protect my capacity.

I’ve also felt reluctant to probe and ask questions related to COVID precautions and limiting viral transmission. I don’t feel comfortable attending large gatherings that can be a superspreader event. What’s the point of learning about improving my writing craft, if I die or get permanently debilitated by long COVID?

After some deliberation I decided to join the event virtually. As I read the details in the registration I felt hopeful that the virtual components were planned and executed seamlessly. As the conference day approached, I received the instructions on travel, accommodations, and online links. I was amazed by how the online component felt naturally included, and not something that was thrown together last minute. This gave the impression that the organizers have full intention for the event to be inclusive, compassionate, flexible, accommodating, which is what I believe the artistic and literary world is supposed to be.

How was Friday?

I rushed to finish dinner and run the dishwasher before plugging my headphones and connecting online. I then discovered that the opening keynote speaker is sick, and at the last minute, is joining online from their home in Edmonton. So technically speaking, I’m geographically closer to her. Her manner of describing how humans use language as a means to make change was just so awe-inspiring to me.

I knew that those who attended in-person had an opening networking event and a casual get-together after the keynote. As my online meeting linked closed, I happily went on to do chores to ensure my weekend is as cleared as possible.

How was Saturday?

Turns out, the morning keynote speaker had a travel-related hiccup and didn’t make it to Calgary. I’m super duper grateful to the power of the internet, giving him a way to do a virtual presentation. It was a compelling keynote that reminded me to continue learning about Canadian history that was not taught in my newcomer orientation and citizenship booklets, to find them in literature that is being produced these days. For Indigenous writers, it is a way to control the narrative of their lives and experiences withing the wider Canadian society and story. For recent immigrant and settlers like me, there’s many ways to learn and enrich our understanding of this place where we live.

It was my first time participating in a panel workshop with writing exercises for both attendees in-person and virtual. The last time I attended a writing workshop with writing prompts (as in, you get five minutes to write answering the question the facilitator gave) was at Pinoys on Parliament conference last year, but all of us are attending virtually so there’s lesser technical hiccups. This is also my first interactive workshop related to memoir.

“Do what’s right for you, for this project, at this time.” I appreciate the compassion, the permission, and flexibility when it comes to processes and decisions. The reminder of the fundamentals that are sometimes forgotten was very valuable. As always, there’s the “good problem” of having too many good choices of panels to attend. When I was choosing which to attend, I read all the details to my husband who does not do artistic of literary work. His perspective helped me narrow it down to the one that makes most practical sense. The fact that we can watch the recordings afterwards is also very reassuring.

I’ve organized events and conferences myself, so I have full appreciation of what happens behind the scenes. It was incredible to see the resources adjustments to mitigate the tech issues. Really incredible and appreciated.

How was Sunday?

Our keynote for Sunday joined us virtually from overseas, all the way from Greece. It was such a delightful and insightful Q and A about their approach across different projects and genres. There’s great comfort in hearing a successful writer acknowledging that certain processes related to writing are still difficult. For an outdoor hotel in Europe and only with one single internet interruption, I’m overjoyed that the setup of the conference allowed her to share her time with all of us.

As someone who belongs to many nonprofit boards, I appreciate the value of the seemingly boring but very important activity during an Annual General Meeting. I’d say it’s the most engaging one I’ve attended in a long time, particularly on the elections part. I’m glad that the Writers Guild of Alberta will have a full board of directors for the upcoming year, and that they are working on ensuring their committees are able to help with particular goals, such as membership engagement, diversity and inclusion, and youth supports.

The afternoon panel I would say is the most practical and helpful for me in my personal writer’s journey. The Q and A between publishers and agents addressed many questions from the in-person and virtual audience with tangible examples whenever they could, and saying frankly “I don’t know” and “it depends” at other times. My notebook is filled with notes on what I can work on in the next few months as I set up my schedule with editors and publishing one day.

Takeways

I’ve helped organized many events and conferences in the past, and have attended many events and conferences before COVID and in recent years. I am very aware of the additional time, coordination, cost, and sometimes, stress that comes from organizing events in a hybrid fashion. I’m immensely grateful that they did so. It meant that three of the major speakers were still able to share their wisdom despite unexpected cancellations or other plans that resulted in scheduling conflicts. It helped me focus on my primary objective for this conference, which is to learn and preserve my energy accordingly – and also preserve my limited vacation time and money. Alberta is a massive province and it’s difficult to expect rural Albertans writers to be able to travel all the way to a major city, or from one major city to another. It’s a truly tangible way to showcase the commitment to diversity and inclusion.

My two final takeways with my ongoing literary journey that I hope are action-oriented are these:

First, joining a literary-oriented organization and paying the nominal membership fee is very much worth it. Just starting with one is enough. In my case it was through the Writers Guild of Alberta. This one membership is what helped me pace myself in gradually expanding my literary community, where I eventually felt convinced that despite the seemingly grandiose image that come up with the word “guild”, that perhaps I belong here too.

Second, especially for people like me who don’t have a career in literature, to carve some time for a literary or artistic program or event. There’s no need to pressure one’s self to spend a lot of money or fill every single evening or weekend. A small local event once a month, one multiple-month flexible program per year, once conference in the spring and one in the fall. All these add up after a while.

This event has been such a gift. It’s a comment that came up in the comments during the virtual meetings. Simple and the most accurate way to describe it. Huge huge thank you to the organizers, sponsors, staff and volunteers for making it a success.