I am considering going to one of the fall conferences - MSPA Shoppersfest in Anaheim or the IMSC conference in Vegas. Which would be the more interesting and better learning experience for a newbie? I do not plan to do video shopping in the future, but would like to learn as much as I can about hotel and dining shopping. Networking and making contacts would be a key goal in attending. Is one conference better than the other or more well attended?

Thanks!

I highly recommend the IMSC Las Vegas conference. They usually have a whole session of hotel shops and virtually all the sessions are lead/taught by experienced shoppers and/or schedulers and editors who can tell you just what the MSCs are looking for and how to avoid common mistakes. The great thing about shopper-led discussions is that we are able to tell the audience about what to expect from several different MSCs in the hotel and/or restaurant industry, whereas MSC reps often cannot or will not address practices other than those of their own company. In addition, there will be lots of times to mingle and chat with MSC reps, schedulers and fellow shoppers between and after sessions. I never did hotel shops until I had been to an IMSC conference and afterwards started doing tons of them. That conference put me on a first name/ face to face basis with several hotel shop schedulers and a couple of owners of MSCs that do hotels and restaurants. I will be doing one or two workshops at the LV conference (not on hotels, since there will be other specialists there) and at least one of them will be tips of all kinds for newbies who want to ramp up their MS experience and profits. Hope to see you there. (By the way, although some IMSC conferences in the past have not done so, recent conferences have aimed to make sure that whenever there is a video-centered session there is also a session on another topic for those who are not (yet) interested in video..)

Thanks for the reply, walesmaven. For a new shopper without connections, do you think it is a good experience? Or do you think it is difficult to make connections at this type of event since it will be mostly people who know each other?

There will be lots and lots of new people and those who are veteran shoppers are there BECAUSE they are dedicated to helping newer shoppers build their business. For instance, all of the presenters are unpaid volunteers who pay their own travel and expenses to help other shoppers. And, they/we hand around in the bar in the evenings holding impromptu workshops on all sorts of shopper issues and ideas! Just sit down at any table and ask questions. We were all newbies once and can tell funny stories about how boneheaded our own early mistakes were! So don't hesitate to ask any questions!

It is the ideal place to make connections. Even experienced shoppers make new connections! After all, you will find that shoppers you meet there will stay in touch and even send emails when to each others to alert when favorite MSCs post new shops.

Edited to add: the Las Vegas conference is always the biggest of the year and has the most newbies in attendance, in my experience.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2015 07:31PM by walesmaven.

The only people I "knew" at my first conference were those from the forums. I had never met any of them face to face, although you would never have known by the way we acted once we were all together

Thanks all. Has anyone attended Shopperfest? Or can compare the two conferences?

Fairly new here with just over one year under my belt. I plan to attend the IMSC Las Vegas shop and will report back my impression as a somewhat new shopper. I have never attended any of the conferences before. Looking forward to this one!

And I am looking forward to meeting you there!