A Voice Actor’s first Voiceover Conference

It’s been one week since I arrived home from attending my very first VO Atlanta. That’s right–although I have been lucky enough to have been in this industry for 20 years, I had not yet attended the biggest voiceover conference in the world…until this year.

There are countless blog posts and articles about whether or not voice over conferences are “worth it”. I find those kind of silly. We as a society tend to reduce everything to black-and-white terms when those absolute terms are rarely accurate. Most everything in life falls into the in-between…those subtle shades of gray that live in the middle of black and white.

WORTH IT (For Me)!

Am I glad I attended this year? That would be a resounding YES!  Was it worth if FOR ME?  Absolutely.  J. Michael Collins and his wife Anna Alcasis-Collins did a tremendous job of putting the conference together. I cannot imagine the amount of details and stress that is involved in planning this thing. They are clearly adept and experienced at putting something on this scale together. They also recognize the value and necessity of delegating, and their support staff did a truly fantastic job of keeping the show running smoothly.  If there were glitches, I was completely unaware of them.

Kicking it off with a Booking!

My conference experience started out with a last minute flight change.  As luck would have it, I booked a fantastic commercial job right before the conference through my agents at Go Voices. These clients wanted to record at the fantastic Coupe Studios on Thursday morning…right when my Southwest flight was supposed to take off. Kudos to Southwest for making if FREE and EASY to push my flight back. I avoid calling any sort of customer service line like the plague. With Southwest, no phone call was necessary. It literally took me 2 minutes to go on line, search for alternate flights, and re-book to a later one. Hallelujah! That last minute booking was a huge blessing…as it just gave me a welcome confidence boost from the start.

So the conference itself was extremely well organized and the offerings were vast. As far as I was concerned, the rest of the experience was entirely up to me! I had vowed to take full advantage of it–and so I did!

Connecting in Person

One of my biggest goals was to finally connect IN PERSON to many of the wonderful agents, managers, production houses, and coaches that I have been working with for months or even years.  This voiceover industry can be somewhat isolating. It’s fabulous that I can work from home in my Whisper Room, but there is just no substitution for connecting face-to-face. And that I did.

Highlights

A few of the many highlights were getting to meet my dear agent Suzanne Spaziani of ASP, all the awesome ladies at the VO Chateau by Celia Siegel Management, the wonderful guys at Pandora/Studio Resonate, Zach Hahn of Audio Expert, Mary Lynn Wissner of Voices Voicecasting who produced my most recent commercial demo, and even the team at Voice Actor Websites who helped me create this very website. I even got to reconnect with a dear friend, Vikas Adam (a widely acclaimed audiobook narrator) from my college days at Syracuse University, whom I had not seen in 26 years!

Learning Opportunities

And then there was the learning. I had jumped on the chance to sign up for special “X-Sessions” with Thom Pinto on “In Show Narration” and Harry Dunn for “Network Promo“.  Both of these sessions were wildly fun and informative. I am in love with both genres and am making demos for both styles in the next few months. Getting the opportunity to have an intense learning session with these masters–along with about 10 of my excellent peers– was absolutely fabulous.

A Word of Warning

I’ve covered a lot of the “good”…but I also mention the “bad” and the “olives” in my title so I guess I should explain them.

Conferences can be expensive and draining. It’s a LOT of stimulation. I did not get even close to enough sleep and I was utterly and completely exhausted when I got home. I had somewhat been mentally prepared for that but it’s not for everyone. Like many people, I have multiple facets of my personality. I vowed to access my out-going and “sparkly” side at this conference and talk to as many people as possible. And I did just that. But my throat was TIRED and it took me a solid week to feel human again in the sleep-department.

And conferences are not cheap. The X-sessions I attended were an additional cost. They were worth it–but not cheap.  And the drinks at the Hilton Atlanta Airport Hotel bar were, um, a BIT steep.  My go-to drink is a Dirty Martini (finally, she explains the olives!) and those came in at a whopping $20 each before tip!  The drinks were well made and I am fortunately a bit of a light-weight when it comes to alcohol so I didn’t need too many to get that nice buzz going…but still, if you’re calculating by olive at 3 olives per drink, that comes out to almost $7 per olive. 🍸

The Takeaway

So there you have it. I am so grateful to have met so many fantastic people in person and to bask in the glow of what is truly a warm, lovely, generous, and dynamic group of people. I am proud to be a part of the Voiceover Industry. I am happy to say that I left the conference feeling like I truly belonged. And what a gift that was.

There’s No Place Like Home

And finally, one of the very best things about attending any sort large conference like this?  The warmth and relief of returning HOME. ♥️