experts – Midwest Craft Con

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As Midwest Craft Con approaches, you’ve probably spent some time reviewing our our schedule and plotting which sessions you’ll attend. Our craft business speakers will share their knowledge with you in 1.5-hour breakout sessions that include Q&A time. Many of our speakers also post their notes or slides in the private Facebook group afterward, and our attendees often make their notes available to swap if you have to make tough decisions about which sessions to attend.

In addition to our breakout classes, our generous speakers and community sponsors are offering Office Hours during the con as well. These are 10- to 20-minute consultations and advice sessions that you can sign up for at the con.

Each day we’ll post a new list of speakers offering one-on-one time within the trade show — signups will be available on a first-come first-served basis. You simply write down your name in the time slot and then meet with your coach in the lobby. We will have reserved tables marked for these meetups.

One-on-ones will include sessions with:

Mei Pak, who can assist you with social media critiques.
Let Olivera Bratich who owns Wholly Craft and Surprise gaze into her crystal ball to tell you your business fortune!
Ask our resident account, Allison Rosen, your burning money questions.
Esther Hall can field you with advice about nonprofits and grant-writing.
The team behind Handmade Arcade will offer booth and craft show advice.
Daniella Cortez can help you with PR and and pitching your products to publications.
Jodi Lynn Burton wants to interview Conners for her podcast, Detroit Craft Academy.
Embroiderer extraordinaire Sarah Fisher can offer technical advice as well as the good, bad, and ugly of the brick and mortar retail life.
Keynote speaker Vicki Howell gives tips on making your crowdfunding campaign successful.

And even more speakers will be participating! Stop by the trade show each morning to see the day’s full list of one-on-one time slots and sign up.

Got something to say? Midwest Craft Con is looking for experienced business owners from the realms of craft, art and design to share their knowledge with our attendees.

Our target audience is what we call mid-career makers, people who have run a creative business for at least two years. A successful session pitch will keep those businesspeople in mind, and we love it when people put own spin on the topic. Breakout sessions are 1 hour in length, including Q&A time. We are looking for sessions on marketing, business, finances, legalities, work-life balance, ideation, creativity and other craft business issues. We’re not looking for medium-specific workshops at this time. To get an idea of what we’re looking for, check out 2016’s speaker lineup here, and read the full descriptions of sessions in the program.

Invited speakers will receive an honorarium, hotel stay and admission to our three-day conference and some additional surprises. (If you buy an early bird ticket but then are invited to speak, we will refund your ticket.) We regret we may not be able to extend invitations to everyone who submits ideas, but we hope you will plan to join us no matter what!

If you’ve got an idea for a talk you’d like to give at Midwest Craft Con 2017, fill out this form! (If you’ve just got an idea that you’d like someone else to talk about, drop it in the suggestion box.) We’ll get back to everyone who submits a speaking proposal in the fall, and announcing the 2017 speaker lineup shortly thereafter.

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Meet our Speakers in 1-on-1 Office Hours

Call for speaking proposals!