Connect Beyond the Keyboard at #NoLongerVirtual

Take your LinkedIn Network to the Next Level at #NLVDenver

This is not your typical professional development opportunity.

Five months after the inaugural #NLV, Melissa Hughes wrote about the positive effects on your brain when you find people you truly connect with, your tribe.

When was the last time you went to a conference and were still thinking about it five months later?

Content at #NLVAtlanta was relevant and solid, the facilitated sessions were engaging and interactive, and the accommodations and food were outstanding, but what made the inaugural #NoLongerVirtual extraordinary was the participants. A few have written about what they experienced there, and we'll be sharing video interviews of #NLVAtlanta participants over the next few weeks.

The most vivid memory I have of those two inspiring days is the very end of the first day. We had spent most of the day together in a conference room, breaking only for lunch, and the final session with Dustin McKissen took us just past 6pm. I knew a lot of the people attending considered themselves introverts, and was intentional in scheduling time for people to walk away by themselves or in smaller groups in order to decompress and recover, which is why I didn't have a plan for dinner that evening. After the basic housekeeping announcements, I said:

A few of us will be going to the Chinese restaurant about a block from here, it was highly recommended by hotel staff.

If you would like to join us, please let me know so I can call the restaurant and give them a heads up that we will have a larger group.

I was thinking of a larger group as 6 or 8 people. Twenty three of us met in the hotel lobby and walked to the restaurant together. No one wanted the day to end. I couldn't have been more relieved, happy, or satisfied.

Keys to the Success of No Longer Virtual

The morning I woke up with the concept of the first #NoLongerVirtual in my head, a few critical points came to mind immediately:

• No keynotes: The people who would attend have so much to contribute, why not leverage the experience in the room to benefit everyone?
• Leverage the Breaks Between Sessions: The best parts of every conference I ever attended were in between and after sessions, when I would meet and connect with other participants and the speakers. Make those breaks the foundation of the #NLV experience.
• Avoid the "After Conference Hangover": Find ways to continue the momentum and inspiration long after the conference ended.

Other than those elements, I had no idea what to expect from the inaugural #NLV, and from the articles written about it, neither did anyone else. The facilitators were taking the financial risk to participate, knowing only that they were looking forward to meeting some of their most engaged readers and network members from LinkedIn.

I knew that everyone who participated would have opportunities to share their own expertise, and that we would have opportunities to truly connect with each other. After so many years of activity on LinkedIn, it was time to take this to the next level, to meet and learn from each other face-to-face.

Within 24 hours of the end of that successful event, my head was swimming with ideas to improve on it for the next one. And only a few weeks after that, I had a plan for a location, requests for proposals out to area hotels, and two of the session topics and their facilitators confirmed for #NLVDenver, #NLV2018.

The agenda for the next No Longer Virtual in Denver is relevant, the content is solid, and the facilitators are outstanding. I couldn't be more excited to meet the next #NLVtribe in Denver in 2018.

Registration is now open. With a limit of only 50 participants, will you take the leap and register before it's too late?

Join us at No Longer Virtual in Denver on February 22 and 23, 2018.

Registration is NOW OPEN!

Your business will reach 50 engaged, motivated, entrepreneurial professionals when you sign up to be a sponsor for No Longer Virtual 2018, contact me for details!

Sarah Elkins is a professional coach and consultant, helping people and businesses improve their communication through the art of storytelling. She's also the President of Elkins Consulting, the company making a splash with small, face-to-face, affordable interactive conferences called No Longer Virtual.