Blog > Event Planner Interviews
Interview - South Bay Yoga Conference
This week we sat down with Jules Mitchell, who is launching the South Bay Yoga Conference this year.
TravelingOms.com: Why did you want to start a yoga conference in Los Angeles, which already has a thriving yoga community?
Jules Mitchell: The South Bay area, just south of LAX airport, has a lot of great teachers doing great things. But since the Santa Monica and Venice yoga communities are so close, we find ourselves participating in their events often. I thought, why not create our own event?
I went to the Flagstaff Yoga Conference and saw such amazing teamwork. The communication between presenters was almost palpable. They would promote each other in classes and seemed to know what was going on with everyone else. I wanted to encourage that type of communication in the South Bay area by bringing in various types of yoga and knowledge into one venue, so we could all connect together. That way we could learn what others are doing. Essentially I wanted to expand the yoga conversations to grow our yoga community.
Second, I wanted to increase yoga’s reach out into the South Bay community as a whole. We donated a lot of tickets to area non-profit organizations to raffle off as fundraisers. This helped the non-profits, but also will bring people into our classes who may have never experienced yoga before.
TO: What was your process when looking for presenters?
JM: We began by contacting area studios. We knew we wanted a multitude of styles represented, so we began by reaching out to, say, the largest Kundalini and Iyengar studios in the area. We let them determine who the best person to represent their styles might be. The presenters must be someone who could give an introduction as well as an in-depth look, because our audience will be such a mixture of levels. We looked both locally and regionally because we wanted to bring in some fresh knowledge for those already part of the South Bay yoga community.
From there, word got out and we began to receive presenter proposals. In all, I think we got 140 presenter proposals and will end up with about 30-35 presenters.
TO: How did you narrow down that many presenter proposals?
JM: There were two big criteria that narrowed the list down:
First was uniqueness. We wanted to showcase a variety of topics, not just be another Power Yoga Conference. In addition to the regular yoga styles, we’ve got Ansley Carper's Thai Yoga Therapy class, Christine Frazzitta's Aromatherapy Workshop, Ashton Szabo will be presenting The Story of Hanuman, just to name a few. We want to open our audience up to all yoga has to offer.
The second thing that made a proposal stand out was how complete it was. We gravitated to the ones that obviously had a lot of effort put into them. Ones where the presenter gave us a variety of workshop ideas and complete descriptions, and just seemed enthusiastic to present. These were the people we wanted on our team.
TO: Did all of your presenters come to you or did you search any out?
JM: Most came to us through the conversations we had been having with local studios. However, there were some I had to search out. For example, I used the Internet to find our Alexander Technique presenter, since we didn’t have anything like that locally.
TO: What is your best advice to people looking to present at conferences such as these?
JM: Read the presenter proposal instructions and follow them completely. Maybe even give more than they ask for. So many proposals I received were very ambiguous – like the person wanted to present but didn’t have a clear grasp of what they were presenting. Have a workshop idea already fleshed out in your head before you apply. Know what you are trying to sell us on. The effort you put into your presenter proposal shows us how thorough you will be as a presenter. It tells us a lot about you as a person.
Another thing you can do is attending conferences. Network with people. Find a mentor. I got lucky and was mentored by Laura Brown, the director of the Flagstaff Yoga Conference. Her advice and support was priceless in making the South Bay Yoga Conference happen. Look for mentors already doing what you want to do.
TO: Thank you, Jules!
