For those of you who follow my blog closely, probably realize I was a bit slow to post this week. That’s because I just got back from my first ever work trip! Thursday morning, I took off for St. Paul, MN for the National Association of Campus Activities conference – yes that’s a real thing! I was suuuuuper nervous leading up to this. I’ve never attended a conference before, and I was going by myself. I was scared I was going to get lost, or be late, and the thought of talking to new people is always kind of scary.

Well, the day came, I drive to St. Paul, and I’m sitting in the convention center waiting for the first session to start, and I start having a full on panic attack. I’m sitting by myself watching all these other schools walk by with entire groups of people attending, and I quickly realize I was the only one there by myself. Not to mention I had discovered that my hotel wasn’t connected to the convention center like I originally thought it was, and parking is stinking expensive in the cities, plus all the other anxieties I had before even getting there. I was starting to feel way overwhelmed and was panicking a little bit.

I called Dan and told him I was ready to turn around and go home, I was that worked up. He settled me down and told me this was good for me, that it was good to be outside of my comfort zone, and I didn’t know what would come of the weekend if I gave up and left. He was absolutely right. I took a few deep breaths and went for it.

It honestly was a pretty good weekend. I really pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and met a lot of new people. I learned a lot of new things on how to engage students, and got some ideas on how to better my Campus Activities Board attendance and participation. I’m honestly kind of excited to get back and start implementing some of these things.

The best part of the conference was that each day we had 2-3 showcases where anywhere from 6-8 artists – per showcase – would get about 15 minutes to show us what they could bring to our campus. We saw comedians, magicians, mentalists, poets, musicians, pretty much anything you could think of. It was a brilliant idea! It’s kind of nice to see what they’re about before you actually decide to bring them to your school or not. Especially since one of the comedians who was supposedly supposed to be one of the best ones there, almost made me get up and leave the room – he was so raunchy! It’s good to know those kinds of things before we spend money to bring them to campus.

There were a lot of amazing acts, and it will definitely be difficult to narrow it down and only pick a few. That’s why, next year, I’m really hoping I can bring some of my CAB board with me to the conference. What I like isn’t always what the students will like, so if I’m able to get a few students to join me next year, they could help narrow it down and get the best of the best.

Overall, it was an experience. Would I go again? Absolutely. Would I go by myself again? Prooooobably not. It was beneficial and I learned a lot, but I think the students would benefit so much more. So, here’s to hoping I can create a more effective CAB committee next year!!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger