Post-VVC: Where Are You Now?
Note: I wrote most of this post soon after VVC 2013, but for a number of reasons I didn’t finish it. Of course, then time flew by and now it’s months later. Surprisingly, I feel a lot of it still works, so I present it now with few changes in the hopes of starting a conversation I planned on starting so long ago.
It happens with a lot of things, and a vegan blogging conference, although special in many ways, can still fall into the same pattern as so many others that begin with a spark.
The whole weekend went by in a blur, and when I wasn’t working on releasing issue seven, I was at the Portland Art Museum listening to talks on Building Community, Vegans of Color (or Vegans of Colour for my fellow Canucks and Brits), Ethics Beyond the Plate, Balancing a Personal Life with a Blog, Adding AR content to your food blog, and more. Even when I finally got the issue out the digital door, the hours still slipped past so fast as vegans from around the world dined, networked, hugged, talked, and listened.
For those of you who attended the first VVC, you probably noticed plenty of changes, I think 98% of them were for the better. Sure, the first conference was beautiful and special in its own way, but this time around there was plenty of serious talk mixed in with the fun and the food.
Of course, talk is just that: talk. The important thing to come from this conference is action, and whether or not that happens is up to all of us. I have no doubt that many of the friendships and connections that were made last weekend will continue, but what I’m more interested in is whether or not the discussions will.
I’m not looking to put a damper on the amazing things that happened (although it has been raining ever since I arrived back in Winnipeg, so maybe I’m influenced a little by the weather). Actually, I’m hoping to do the opposite: I’m aiming to keep the flames burning under so many things that we all spoke so passionately about amongst the company of like-minded folks. The challenge now is to figure out how each one of us can take that energy and use it to truly drive change in the real world.
People have talked of being renewed, recharged, and invigorated by the conference, and I agree. So, why not put that energy to good use before the world starts to wear us down one bad steak commercial at a time?
So, where are you now? Whether or not you’ve done incredible things or been sucked back into your day job and regular life, I’d love to know about your post-VVC world. Chances are, we could all use a little more fuel for our fires at this point!
