Got an answer? I’ll ask you to share in a moment and maybe you’ll win a free book …

For now, I’m here to report I’m back from Delray Beach, Florida and my first AWAI Copywriters Bootcamp conference. Let me tell you, this was one jam-packed couple of days of sessions and networking like I’ve never experienced before. Almost 400 folks paid some pretty big bucks and made their way from all-points of the USA, Canada, even China (one of my students from the summer) to this “little village by the sea” to learn from the copy masters (like Bob Bly, Herschell Gordon Lewis, etc.) and mistresses (like me!) to become working copy and marcomm writers.

Because us copy professionals are surely living the good life or so I’ve been told …

It was wonderful putting faces to the two dozen or so names and voices I came to know over 8 weeks/16 sessions I taught this past summer. (I teach again at the end of this month.) It was weird, wonderful and humbling being viewed with such affection and admiration because I’ve been doing what they aspire to and I’ve been doing it pretty successfully for a long, long time. There were a lot of people I’d classify as mid-life career changers and early retirees who want to make a decent living and more control over their lives, professional as well as personal. These are brave souls who are putting themselves out there, not just talking the proverbial talk, but walking it, as well.

On a personal note, I also got to meet and attend sessions with the big names, like Lewis, who helped shape my own writing and career. So I enjoyed twin status as copy guru/groupie depending on the context

We slogged through 18-hour days alternately exhausted and energized. (It felt a little like Vegas to me. I found myself curiously oblivious and numb to days and dates and time.) I heard the ocean and felt the sea breeze but didn’t have the chance, not even once, to put my lollipop red polished toes in the sand the days were so full. The days were also hot as hell and I was having trouble differentiating between the regular heat and a personal hot flash. The water spritzy things around the pool/patio made the outside bearable but then the hotel managers closed the outside bar at 6pm sharp every night. (Writers with no easy access to free-flowing refreshments? Outrageous!)

Then of course, I left my bag of laptop cables and other accoutrement in my room and hotel housekeeping still hasn’t found it. Not that I needed it because the ethernet connection in my little corner of the Delray Beach universe didn’t work at all and I had to use the lobby desktop PC to review my email. (Hubby, who’s still talking to me even though I left the cable bag, ordered me a nifty and lightweight Nokia Internet Tablet for my next business trip to reduce the amount of electronic crap I have to drag with me.)

To sum it all up, it was a hard but exhilarating few days … a love fest between me and my students — some of whom are already starting to get paid assignments … and a chance to refresh my own skills and connect with my “own kind” while smelling the salt air. It made me realize I gotta get the heck out of my office more often!

Got an Answer for the Classic Light Bulb Question?

I don’t because my brain is fried but maybe you do! Best answer gets a free copy of Joe Vitale’s book, Buying Trances, personally schlepped home by me on the airplane late last night. Respond in the comments. I’ll pick a winner by Friday, October 19.

It’s good to be home.

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[tags] awai, copywriting, copywriters, bootcamp, delray beach, bob bly, herschell gordon lewis, joe vitale, buying trances, classic light bulb jokes[/tags]