Yesterday was the 19th annual conference for the San Francisco Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (I’m a member of the national organization.) 98-99% of some 200 attendees were women, some of whom had been in business for 25+ years, and some of whom were just contemplating a switch of careers to be an organizer. Talk about a nice group of people. Everyone seemed to be full of smiles and good humor. Naturally, everything flowed smoothly and on-time. =)

I had originally heard about the conference from the conference chair, Diane Judd who I met at a BACN (Bay Area Consultants Network) event in July. Even though she hadn’t seen me since then, she warmly greeted me by name when I checked in. I’m guessing she had smoothly taken a quick glance at my name tag, but, hey, who cares? It was a nice way to start the day because I didn’t know anyone when I showed up. Over the course of the day, seeing her interact with the organizing committee and other attendees, I could tell she had been a perfect candidate for chairing the conference. Gracious, friendly, and generally just “on it”. Good job, Diane!

It followed standard conference format: 2 keynote speakers (Judith Kolberg and Caterina Rando), several break-out sessions, a generous raffle to keep us ’til the very end, schwag bag of goodies, and plenty of food, coffee, & tea at the San Ramon Marriott Hotel.

Session subjects ranged from Face Reading, to Feng Shui for Organizers, to dealing with Icky Sticky Situations (working in toxic, or possibly dangerous situations), to a panel on “Green” Organizing, to Working with Design Professionals, to Networking and Developing an Organizing Business.

I’ll post more resources and reporting over the next several days.