We are so excited for our guest writer Jessica O’Conner to share with you her recent experience attending the INA conference for the first time. Arizona nannies we are so lucky because INA will be right in our backyard next year! Mark you calendars and save the dates for May 17th -20th as INA will be hosting it’s annual conference in Tucson! For more information on the conference and how you can become a member of the INA please visit www.nanny.org.
Jessica is a professional nanny in Cincinnati OH and below she will share with you the highlights of her weekend in Chicago at the International Nanny Association conference! We hope this will encourage our Nanny Joynt nannies to invest in yourselves and join us next year as the INA conference is truly the most inspiring and incredible expereince that all nannies should take part in!
Last weekend I had the privilege of attending my first INA conference! It was an all weekend event with several speakers, a job fair, a raffle and mingling. The day after the conference I was asked “so what do you do at a nanny conference?” I’m pretty sure I was asking myself the same thing in the days leading up to it.
So what do you do? Well, if you’re like me you learn and you cry (really…sometimes the speakers hit you deep with their knowledge). You feel awkward one moment and the brave enough to go up to a group of strangers the next. You listen to speakers who open your mind to so many new thoughts and ideas. You eat 2-3 servings of cookies during networking time because they are sooo good. On top of learning skills and gaining inspiration, you feel this sense of belonging because it’s the one time a year you are surround by people who are just as crazy about the nanny industry as you are.
I was able to connect with some wonderful nannies, newborn care specialists and agency owners. I spent some time exchanging business cards and just learning a bit about people and how they got where they are now. It was such an incredible learning experience.
Our keynote speaker was Megan Metzger of Preferred Childcare Inc. She began speaking and I was instantly wowed by her passion. Seriously, her story and big heart is one that will leave you effortlessly inspired. She taught us about work-life balance…turns out “there isn’t such thing; it’s all life and you create your own definition of balance.” She spoke with us about the tools to decide this balance for ourselves and how to carry through with it. She taught me perfection isn’t something I will ever be able to achieve and to let go of the guilt that brought on me. The important thing is to just do your best and have fun while you’re doing so. After looking back at the weekend the words on her power point have stuck with me- “with the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform your life.”
I enjoyed the many workshops I took as well. They really were really well presented and left me with information I could apply to my working life as a nanny.
Overall the conference went really well and I left with a few new mentors, I was offered some opportunities I would’ve never been given other wise and gained a new self confidence not only as a nanny, but as a person over all. I’m thankful for the wonderful people I met and already excited to see them next year.
