SPC Conference

Selling Yourself: Practical Tips for Writers, Designers, Photographers and Other Communicators

Learn how to sell yourself and promote your business from the experts at a half-day conference sponsored by the Society of Professional Communicators. You’ll get tips based on real-life experience that you can use to improve your communications business and increase your sales.

Time:        Tuesday, April 8, 8:00 am - 12:30 pm

Price:        $30 - Members; $35 - Nonmembers
includes continental breakfast

Menu:  Assorted bagels and breakfast breads, plain and flavored cream cheese, yogurt, fresh seasonal fruit, orange juice, coffee and tea

RSVP:  By April 7, 2007. Click here for registration form (pdf file), or contact SPC Meeting Registration Chair, Cynthia Wright at 508-842-1410 or register@spcgroup.org. To register by mail, make checks payable to SPC; mail to:

Registration and breakfast
8:00 – 8:30

Books and other materials featuring our guest speakers will be available for purchase during registration, at the break and at the conclusion of the conference.

Introduction
8:30 – 8:45

Keynote Address
Taking the plunge, and surviving
8:45 – 9:30

Jennifer Chase Williams, former Director and Loan Specialist at the Center for Women & Enterprise, has helped women grow their businesses; obtain financing; mitigate their tax liabilities; plan their exit strategies, and sometimes achieve their dreams—whether for early retirement of funding children’s college educations—all the time honing her own skills as a business consultant and mentor. She’ll offer practical suggestions for growing your business.

Jennifer graduated from NYU with a degree in mathematics and has an MBA from Clark University. She is also a Certified Public Accountant and spent several years working as a CPA at the firm of Carlin, Charron and Rosen.

After years of helping others, Jennifer decided it was time to see if she could run her own business. She subsequently purchased five day care centers and now owns centers in Worcester, Leicester, Shrewsbury and Westboro under the name of Jennifer Williams Early Learning Centers.

In addition to running her five day care centers, Jennifer teaches Accounting and Taxation at Assumption College and Clark University and is currently working again as a CPA at McLaren and Associates in Shrewsbury.

Our three speakers will relate their experiences, including the triumphs and challenges, as they launched and continue to grow their businesses.

Speaker 1 - Shooting for the stars
9:30 – 10:00

Tom Rettig is the staff photographer for Worcester Living Magazine and his news and features photos have won several national awards. He has been named Photographer of the Year for Region 1 from the National Press Photographers Association and received two Awards of Excellence from Pictures of the Year International. His photos of the Worcester warehouse fire in 1999 were Pulitzer Prize finalists in the feature news category.

As a newspaper photographer for the past nine years, Tom has worked for: the Community Newspaper Company (Framingham, MA), the Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio), the Journal Tribune (Biddeford, Maine), Valley News, (West Lebanon, N.H.) and the Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA). He has photographed everything from food to heroin addicts in jail. Tom says he gets to explore his curiosity about life and his community through photography. Samples of his work can be found at www.tomrettig.com

Break
10:00 – 10:15

Write your way to success
10:15 – 10:45

Glenda Baker is the publisher and editor-in-chief of NEWN, a quarterly publication devoted to helping new writers get published and teaching through content and example.  She is owner of the consulting business, The Write Way, and conducts workshops, edits, and tutors. Glenda taught basic composition and fiction writing for over ten years through the Assabet After Dark program in Marlborough. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and the International Women’s Writing Guild.

Her personal essay “What to Name a Grandmother” appears in A Cup of Comfort for Grandparents, and her short story “Just Try Again” appears in Still Waters: Crime Stories by New England Writers published by Level Best Books November 2007. Glenda is the author of  Because It Works!: How-to Articles from New England Writers’ Network, available in early 2008 Glenda’s website is www.NEWNMag.net

Designing a bright future
10:45 – 11:15

Jody Shyllberg, principal, started JS Graphics, a full-service design studio offering fresh and innovative solutions for marketing communications, in 1984. Since then, the technology of graphic design has changed drastically—challenging and changing the business model several times—from marker comps and paste-up to the present digital demand for visual communication in print, web and multi-media. As the means and tools now allow non-professionals to try their hand at design, JS Graphics has been able to demonstrate the value of a professional designer and to adapt its sales and marketing to prosper in the volatile marketplace. The firm successfully serves the consumer, retail, healthcare, legal, financial, manufacturing, construction, non-profit, technology, and education fields. For more information, visit Jody’s website: www.jsgraphics.net

Panel
11:15 – 11:45

Our three speakers will take questions from the audience.

Closing remarks
Finding your way through the legal maze
11:45 – 12:25

Jean Sifleet, business attorney, CPA and three-time entrepreneur, is a graduate of Ohio University’s College of Business and Boston University School of Law. She is a member of the business practice group of Worcester-based law firm Hassett & Donnelly. With more than 30 years of business experience and numerous publications including “SmartFast®— Running Your Business & Staying Out of Trouble” and “Advantage IP – Profit from Your Great Ideas” – Jean has a wealth of practical information to share.

As many of you know – doing business is legally complicated.  You have to deal with a broad spectrum of legal issues including: negotiating contracts, setting rates, protecting copyrights, trademarks, licensing, subcontractors, employees, leases, non-competes, partnership agreements, business disputes … Today, Jean will share some key tips about avoiding legal pitfalls. Then, you get to “Ask the Business Attorney” your questions! For more background, Jean’s website is www.smartfast.com.

For a schedule of additional SPC events, please view our Meetings page.