My Experience at the 2019 Alt Summit

I just had a whirlwind week of awesomeness. It was called Alt Summit.

Alt Summit is a conference for influencers and creative entrepreneurs. It’s a full week of classes, workshops, and keynote speakers talking about business and all things related to going after your dreams.

I was super happy to go and even happier to get to speak there. So happy, in fact, I’ve been excited and getting ready for at least six months.

Am I glad I went? Absolutely!

Was it for the reasons I expected? Not quite.

The reason I went to Alt Summit was for the content. I wanted to attend so many classes and workshops but couldn’t physically make it to everything.

What I didn’t expect was that the conference would take place across four different hotels, and how that would impact the schedule I had picked out for myself. It was kind of difficult to get from one class to another workshop with how long it took to get between each venue.

At least, it would have been hard to get to all of the sessions without being completely exhausted.

So, I switched gears. Instead of trying to make my initial plan of attending all the classes and workshops possible, I just went with the flow. Totally worth it.

Here Are the 5 Things I Loved Most About Alt Summit

1. The People

The highlight of the trip was all of the people. I met so many people and so many people with such interesting jobs. It was great just to hear about what people were doing.

Like I mentioned, I went to Alt Summit excited about the content, but found myself opting to socialize over going to another class.

Their promotional material talks a bit about this, but I didn’t realize how incredible it would be until I experienced it.

2. Palm Springs!

I am sure this won’t shock anyone, but I loved Palm Springs. It is a gorgeous, colorful place, and I am already dying to go back.

I played hooky a couple afternoons, skipping the conference just to wander around town.

After investing in a conference, hotel, plane tickets, etc., it is easy to feel pressure to attend everything and not skip anything. But I needed breaks. Taking a little alone time to explore a new city and recharge a bit was a must.

Plus, I feel like I would have really regretted not seeing more of Palm Springs because it is so beautiful.

3. Joy Cho’s Presentation on Teams

I’m at a point in my business where I’m outsourcing to a few freelancers and considering hiring employees. So, when I learned that Joy Cho from Oh Joy was presenting on building a killer team, I wasn’t going to miss it.

It turned out to be my favorite presentation of the whole week.

She spoke about my exact dilemma: should I hire someone full-time or work with specialist freelancers?

And her answer? Well, she had a lot of good points about working with specialists and her presentation really got me thinking about what I need.

4. I Learned I Can Take on New Speaking Formats

When I found out I was going to speak at Alt Summit, they told me I would be doing a roundtable rather than a workshop.

Now, if you have been to one of my workshops you know that I typically speak lecture-style and have a visual presentation that goes along with it. But this roundtable was going to totally change that.

Picture an hour and a half long session, where people are coming and going, and I present three times. People would come in to hear what I had to say, and then move on to the next expert.

Then imagine it feeling a little like speed dating and yep, that’s what it was.

Anticipating that this new format could throw me off my game, I started actively preparing for it in January. Ultimately, I was way over prepared, but it was worth it.

Afterwards, I had a lot of people compliment my presentation which felt so good because I really did put a lot of thought into it.

5. I Left With More Confidence

I went into the conference worried that I would compare myself to everyone, feel less than, and so on.

You know, I don’t have as many Instagram followers as so and so. And that person is booking way more speaking gigs than me.

But really, this conference taught me that I’m already pushing my business in the right direction. A lot of the workshops were talking about things I’m already doing and that made me feel really good.

Now it’s just about taking it further and having that boost of confidence is sure to help.