NRWA Conference Preview

Yesterday, I was on a free teleseminar call sponsored by the National Resume Writers' Association (NRWA), previewing their upcoming conference in September in Portland, Maine. While I'm unable to attend due to family commitments, I was interested in hearing what was planned -- and I'd like to share a couple of the highlights with you.

(You can listen to the call recording here).

The call was facilitated by Kathy Sweeney and featured several of the conference speakers, including Barbara Safani, Kimberly Schneiderman, and Norine Dagliano.

On Friday, Sept. 23, Barbara will present on "Social Media in Job Search: No Longer Optional."

• "A resume isn't enough anymore," she says.
• Social media profiles allow candidates to better compete.
• Resume writers have a great opportunity to educate clients on what else is out there (in terms of social media profiles and tools) besides LinkedIn.
• This session is important because "resume writers need to keep up with the times."

On Thursday, Sept. 22, in one of the concurrent breakout sessions, Kimberly Schneiderman will present "Boiling It Down: Marketing Your Most Accomplished Client Through a One-Page Document."

• These one-page documents won't replace the resume, but are an additional tool.

On Saturday, Sept. 24, Norine Dagliano will talk about "Same Client - Different Story: Tools and Strategies for Crafting Career-Change Resumes."

• She's had numerous clients coming to her with the challenge that "what they had done, they may not be able to do anymore."
• Traditional resume formats don't work for career changers.

Finally, Kathy Sweeney talked about the presentation she'll give on Friday, Sept. 23 on "Trademarks and Copyrights 101: How to Protect Your Business Name, Logo, and Intellectual Property." On the preview call, Kathy talked about how she's had her website content copied, her articles stolen, and her business name used by other people. She also talked about how she had unintentionally used the name of another business (despite conducting a trademark search). After she had invested time and money in creating a website, blog, and radio show, she received a cease-and-desist letter from another careers industry professional who, she soon discovered, owned that brand. She immediately changed the consortium name, but had to re-record 12 radio shows with the new name.

Sweeney said her talk will help resume writers:

• Protect your business
• Protect your reputation
• Protect your intellectual property
• Make sure you're not infringing on someone else (even accidentally).

For more information about the NRWA Conference, or to register, visit the NRWA website.

A two-pay conference registration option is available for one more week.