SCBWI Conference, 2016

What a time was had by all participants of the SCBWI Conference over the last two days!

Roving Reporters have captured every session across the 2-day conference and will upload their reports over the next few days so I will not give loads of details here. You can find the official SCBWI Conference blog here. And the first report is about the EK Books panel featuring Anouska Jones, Kirrili Lonergan, Gwynneth Jones and Belinda Landsberry, chaired by me.

I also took photos of almost all sessions and posted them on Twitter. 

Feel free to use the hashtag #scbwisyd to find out all the gossip, or visit my twitter feed.

This was my first SCBWI Conference and lucky me got to chair the first panel of the first day of the first conference I attended. Talk about pressure!

This was the second time I had chaired a panel and I had so much fun. But I have to admit I had a flurry of butterflies hiding in my tummy, arms, legs, and ear lobes beforehand. Once the conversation started, they fluttered away thank goodness.

I loved being able to help highlight the recent achievements of EK Books while sharing my personal journey with them. I didn't mind throwing in a few jokes here and there either.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to chair. To continue to develop my chairing skills is a personal goal for me. I would love to chair many more festival and conference panels in the future.

Our EK Books panel about to start
Photo: Penny Morrison

EK Books panel in action
Photo: Georgie Donaghey (Creative Kids Tales)

Anouska, Belinda, Kirrili, Katrina, Gwynne
Photo: Lynn Jenkins

A conference is always so much better when experienced with friends. Thanks Kirrili, Lynn, Gwynne, Jenni, Liz, Anouska, and all my extended literary family members who helped make this conference a roaring success. My literary family expands across Australia now and an event like this just reminds me of how lucky I am to be part of such a warm, supportive and caring community.

Jenni, Katrina, Lynn, Kirrili, Gwynne

We missed our local and interstate friends who could not be with us this time, but we can't wait to cross over with you soon. You just never know when or where.

Good luck to everyone with future submissions and book deals.
It's conferences like these that give hope and inspiration to everyone.

Thanks to the SCBWI committee (Susanne, Deb, Sarah and Marjorie) and the extended team (it is huge!) for all the hard work to bring such a magnificent experience to so many people. The educational benefits are priceless and the social benefits are forever remembered in our hearts.

See you at the next SCBWI Conference in 2018!