Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the Forum on Virtual Assistance (FoVA). Being my first live face-to-face conference since I went to the POC Conference in 2006, I’d forgotten what a thrill it is to be surrounded by others with similar interests! An even bigger thrill was finally meeting some of the VAs I’ve come to know online, including Kathy Colaiacovo from Nova Scotia and Tracey d’Aviero from Ottawa, shown with me in the photo.

Barb Lang did an awesome job of organizing the event, which was held at the Marriott Fallsview in Niagara Falls. The food was delicious and the dining room and meeting rooms all overlooked the Falls. Although I’ve been visiting the Falls since I was too young to remember, I’ve never seen them from that particular vantage point, and it was just wonderful.

All of that was great, but what was even better was the quality of the workshops. Every single one offered not just interesting information, but valuable worksheets that I can use to enhance my business, now that I’m back in my office.

Much of what I learned will also be of benefit to you, regardless of the nature of your business, so I plan to share some of it with you in future posts. Here is a list of the sessions I attended, so you’ll know what you have to look forward to:

• Your Professional & Personal Foundation: Tolerations, Needs and Values, with Mary Lou Ashton
• Helping Your Business Grow by Creating a Marketing Plan, with Jeannine Clontz (winner of this year’s Thomas Leonard Virtual Assistant of Distinction Award)
• Standard Operating Procedures – the Who, What, Where & Why, with Kristi Pavlik
• Creating Websites Using WordPress, with Frances Palaschuk

There was also a Lunch & Learn session on Personality Type and Organizing Style, which I heard was pretty good.

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