The Midwestern Region of the American Music Therapy Association is hosting it’s conference this weekend–here in Fort Collins! I talked last week about why I like going to conference. This week, a list of what I’m looking forward to the most this weekend:
- Taking my first CMTE (an intensive, 5-hour continuing education training). The topic is Advocacy and it’s taught by Dr. Dena Register. The training includes a trip to the state Capitol on Friday and ties in beautifully with the state recognition task force I’ve been involved in for the past 3 years.
Singing my “brain songs” on Saturday. I’m giving a talk titled “Functional Neuroscience for the Clinical Music Therapist.” I haven’t done this talk before, so I’m a little nervous…wish me luck!- Hearing about the Passages conference. This tradition was started (I think) by the students in the New England region. It’s a “mini-conference” planned, hosted, and taught by the students and interns in our region. This is the first one for the Midwestern region and I’m excited to hear all about it.
- Giving my 1st CMTE training (Sunday afternoon). It’s titled “Music Therapy in a Web 2.0 World.” I’ll get to spend 5 hours talking about the online work and tools I love: Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Google, Skype, LinkedIn, etc. People will be bringing their laptops, we’ll get some “hands on” experience, and I’ll share strategies for using these tools for advocacy and business marketing.
- Listening to my friend’s presentation. Sarah Johnson (a fabulous music therapist) and her colleagues (PTs, OTs, SLPs) from Poudre Valley Hospital are talking about their collaborative work on the rehabilitation unit. They’ve developed an amazing program that is truly cooperative and interdisciplinary.
- Re-connecting with friends and making new ones. This is hands-down my favorite part about conference. Enough said.
- Sharing the conference through Twitter. At the AMTA national conference last fall, I used the hashtag #AMTA09 to broadcast the “happenings.” Don’t know how well it worked…but it was the first time! Two weeks ago, music therapists at the southeastern (#seramta) and southwestern (#swamta) conferences were (I thought) incredibly successful sharing their conference via Twitter. I felt like I was there–and loved it! I (and others) hope to do the same this weekend. So if you’re on Twitter, follow #mwamta (and #wramta for the Western region) to stay on top of all the action!
Have a great weekend:D
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Kimberly,
Good luck with your presentation/CMTE. Sounds like it will be an exciting conference. It also sounds like the use of Twitter hashtags are starting to make the rounds. I’m not sure whether MWAMTA or MWAMTA2010 is a better, less confusing (thinking about next year) choice. Maybe you could discuss it in your presentation?
Woo-Hoo! I get excited for conference every year but can usually only go to ONE conference per year. Being linked up to the tweets of other conferences lets me feel like I’M attending too! The excitement continues 🙂
Have a great time singing your Brain Songs!
Would love to follow them all on Twitter.
Everyone have an awesome weekend!
Good thoughts–and I don’t know which is better! One concern with adding the year is that is makes the hashtag awfully long. But I’m sure things will change and adapt as we do 🙂 ~Kimberly
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