Budgeting for the TER Conference – Part 1

Something exciting is happening in March and I am chomping at the bit to be there! It’s TER - The Educator’s Room Conference in Atlanta, June 25-27^th. An exciting and worthwhile conference for teachers, about teachers and by teachers will take place across the three days. Here’s the official description from the website at:

 http://conference.theeducatorsroom.com/

Attend one of the most intimate and engaging professional development events for educators every held.

The conference theme, #Empowering Educators, highlights the necessity to empower the whole educator in a time where we are being attacked from every angle.

The conference will showcase not only best practices for inside the classroom, but will highlight the issues that educators go through being in the classroom such as: forming meaningful relationships, dealing with conflict resolution, building your personal brand, teacher activism and protecting yourself from budget cuts among other topics.

The Educator’s Room Annual Conference is meant to be an intimate space for educators to talk about topics that no other teacher conference will discuss. We pride ourselves that at our conference you will have a chance to actually connect with fellow educators in a safe, “pro teacher” environment.

Budgeting for any conference should began at least five or six months before the conference, if possible. The earlier you make your airline, hotel, and car rental reservations, the cheaper you can get them. However, make sure the hotel and car reservations can be cancelled or changed without penalty if you come upon a cheaper rate. It’s much harder to find airline reservations that can be changed without a big fee, but since ATL is a busy airport, you might be able to find an airline that is more amenable to change if you find a lower rate.

But even before making your reservations for the above, make your reservation for the conference! The earlier you can do this the better as early-bird conference fees can be made at more than $100 discount! If you are creative and like to share your expertise, offer to run a workshop for the conference and you may find a much deeper discount, perhaps a free ticket to the conference. Of course, your offer really has to be made quite early in the timeframe because they will have to advertise your session in their initial conference registration. Being a presenter is not only flattering for the presenter to share their expertise, but additionally, a rewarding learning experience both the conference attendees and the facilitator.

If you are having a problem raising the money for all of the above, make sure the conference registration is paid first, so you don’t get shut out in the later months. Putting aside $40 a week will get your conference money together in a little over 1 month for the Early bird (gone today!) and under 2 months for the regular conference fee.  Students do even better! $25 a week for a month will get your entrance fee paid. Late registration, while worth the price of admission, is double the early bird price. Get ‘em while they’re hot! Don’t wait!

If you want to attend this excellent conference in June, stay tuned for more blog entries on how to save for the conference. In the next budgeting For the TER Conference, Part 2, we’ll talk about crowdsourcing.

 

Still learning!