Notes on Presenting Your First Ghost Conference

It's all a matter of preparation. At least that's what I told myself when I decided that presenting a ghost hunter's conference in Virginia City might be a good idea. I was right about that. I met some wonderful people, the conference was tremendous fun, not to mention a wonderful learning experience for yours truly. That said, I will share some of my new found knowledge with you for the benefit of those who plan on putting together their first conference.

Nothing is ever as easy as it looks. Having attended several well-put together ghost hunters' conferences in the past, I assumed it would be a snap. So without further thought, I jumped in with both feet. And with the help of a few well-intentioned ghost hunting buddies and a devoted daughter in law, I started my plans.

Plan ahead and plan early. As an example, if you want to present a Halloween Conference don't wait till the middle of October to plan it. Those people you want to attend will no doubt have already made their plans. I started my plans for the October conference in July and ended up still feeling rushed. On the morning of the conference I was kicking myself for not allowing at least six months planning time.

When you send out notices of the upcoming event make sure to include RSVP's. I didn't. Consequently, we weren't able to confirm exactly how many participants we would have until the day of the event. This could have been disastrous. Luckily it wasn't. We were fortunate to have had a great group of people who forgave us our first conference flaws.

Where's the equipment? The conference was held in a small room so there really was no need for microphones. But an overhead to show transparencies of some of our great ghost photos and haunted locales would have been nice. Next year we'll have one.

What's on the agenda? Make sure it is flexible. Not everyone likes the same things. This is especially true of ghost hunters. While some may want to wile away hours in the cemetery others want to get out and explore. A little forethought here can prevent a lot of headaches later on. Hindsight tells me that it's better to offer a choice of places to be investigated at intervals rather than expecting a large group to do one investigation.

Protocol. Have a plan as to how you will deal with those who don't adhere to good ghost hunting protocol or those who pay no attention to "Off Limits" signs etc. Fortunately, those who attended our conference were professionals so this is one problem we didn't have to deal with. Still a plan here is necessary.

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