When Megan, Brit and I first started planning Midwest Craft Con, we dreamed for the kind of turnout that we did in February, but had no guarantee that it would happen. We spent nearly 10 months laying the groundwork for the conference, putting down personal credit cards to pay for venue deposits and trusting that our investment would pay off.
And it sure did. We’re so grateful to the members of the craft community who joined us and supported us to create three days of connecting, recharging, celebrating and dreaming. More than 180 people came from all over the United States to make Midwest Craft Con happen, including the creative business owners who attended, the wonderful speakers who shared their experience, and the sponsors who donated their time and talent to make this happen. Huge thanks are in order to all of you — this wouldn’t be the same without each and every one of you.
Midwest Craft Con is a place for makers, so in designing the conference we wanted to create a space where people could try new things and make things happen. And it worked! One attendee arranged a destash swap, another organized a person-to-person gift exchange, and another brought together bricks-and-mortar store owners for a lunchtime discussion. This is exactly why we made Midwest Craft Con happen, people. And we know you’ll have even more ideas for next year now that you’ve gotten an idea of what’s possible.
One of the highlights for me — and many of the people who filled out our attendee survey — was hearing Lisa Congdon’s keynote on Saturday night. The main takeaway was to “sail your own ship.” It’s a metaphor for focusing on your own goals and path when you’re working on building a creative life. This is what one of our attendees had to say:
There was a moment during Lisa Congdon’s keynote where I just realized that I was in a room filled with such like-minded, goal-oriented crafty people. It had been a clear underlying theme all weekend, but something during her speech really drove it home for me. It felt so exciting to realize that there are so many of us out there, driving the handmade revolution!
That kind of magic is what we’re in it for. (That and the karaoke.) You best believe we’ll be back in 2017.
We’ll be announcing dates for Midwest Craft Con 2017 soon! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about it.
Midwest Craft Con 