SAVE THE DATE FOR #IAPWO2019!!!
Our 5th Annual IAPWO Online Conference, #IAPWO2019, will be held on Wednesday, August 7th, 2019 from 12pm – 3pm EST. Presenting our fifth annual wedding officiant conference, #IAPWO2019! This online virtual conference features educational presentations by some of the best and brightest in our field, packed with actionable information and tips to help you take your officiant career to new heights.
Hosted by Laura C. Cannon, IAPWO President
Ceremony Officiants™ | DC Elopements® | The Conscious Entrepreneur
A professional wedding officiant for over 15 years, Laura founded the IAPWO in 2015 with the goal of creating the first professional membership organization dedicated to the promotion and advancement of the wedding officiant profession worldwide. The IAPWO now boasts members on six continents and we are continuing to grow every year.
This year we are proud to host our fourth annual IAPWO conference in an online format so our members will have the opportunity to attend without travel costs! Laura will be the host of the conference and is joined by three outstanding presenters:
Sarah May Alexander and Anna Ferris — Australia
The Celebrant Society
Two Aussie celebrants with one goal: Sarah May Alexander is a former radio host, executive producer, and journalist with a successful celebrancy career under her belt, while Johanna’s background in healthcare education & leadership led her to a Masters Degree in Change Management and a passion for industry improvement. With 17 years of officiant experience between them, together they are working to change the face of Australian & New Zealand celebrancy through their innovative movement, The Celebrant Society.
PRESENTATION:
Prioritizing the Ceremony: How Australian Celebrants rose to the top and how you can too!
Australian celebrants are banding together to change the public’s respect for the wedding ceremony. We are seeing real change in our industry, with it now becoming a wedding ‘trend’ to place huge importance on the officiant choice and ceremony content, along with increased respect for the professional officiant role. We will share how we have implemented this movement and what you can do to help clients want to make their ceremony the best part of the wedding. In this session, you will learn:
– The importance of positive networking and inter professional support to strengthen the officiant industry (and therefore your collective voice for the greater movement)
– Take-home tools that you can implement today to create next-level amazing ceremonies
– Complimentary ways that officiants can increase community awareness of the importance of a great ceremony, an amazing professional officiant, and how the ceremony can make or break the party
Bethel Nathan — San Diego, CA
Ceremonies by Bethel | Elevate by Bethel | IAPWO Vice-President
Bethel Nathan is a successful business owner and award-winning officiant, and she knows how to build and run a successful wedding industry business, having married over 900 couples over the past 10 years and building up over 300 5-star reviews. Combining her background in both large Wall Street investment banks and small business, Bethel also enjoys helping other wedding industry businesses grow and prosper as a business coach and industry speaker.
PRESENTATION:
Beyond the Booking: 5 Tips to Improve Your Communications
When a couple books you many months in advance, should you set them aside for a while, or communicate with them regularly? When it comes to creating an amazing customer experience, the how and how much you communicate with your couples – plus the other vendors involved in their wedding – is key. Learn how to create, implement, and manage a communications process that supports not only your contracted product/service but also helps to build a bond between your business, the couple, and the vendor team. In this session, Bethel will cover:
– 5 tips to improving your communications
– When and how to set communication expectations
– And, 3 no-no’s when it comes to your communications
Marie Burns Holzer — San Diego, CA
Let’s Get Married By Marie
Marie Burns Holzer is a business coach, an internationally recognized wedding industry educator, and an award-winning officiant whose mission is to bring joy and awe into your every day. She started her officiant business with less than $100 to her name back in 2011 and has since performed over 850 weddings and earning over 250 5-star reviews. Her experience and knowledge come from life before officiating when she was a freelance social media marketer and copywriter working with both small businesses and recognizable names like The Houston Chronicle, LIVESTRONG, the Georgia Foreign Trade Zone, and Euronext. She has an energetic and engaging presentation style that always provide you with a clear, actionable next step to bring you further in alignment with your values and goals.
PRESENTATION:
How to Rock Your Social Media as a Wedding Officiant
Everything is online these days and you best believe that couples are checking out your social media presence before contacting you. But are you using it to your best advantage? Consistent, cohesive social media marketing can increase your reach and convert views into sales. And when used well, social media can convert on-the-fence couples during the consultation phase, help inspire your couples and aid you during the planning process, and also get you more referrals from your couples, their friends and family long after the wedding is done. In this session, Marie will cover:
– How to schedule a month’s worth of social media in 90 minutes
– Social media do’s and don’ts (is that the right punctuation?)
– How and when to integrate social media into client experiences
Mark Allan Groleau — New Brunswick, Canada
Unboring! Wedding
Mark Allan Groleau is a full-time professional wedding officiant, the founder of Unboring!Wedding, and a member of IAPWO. Through his online course Unboring!Officiant, he teaches wedding officiants all over the world how to craft unboring wedding ceremonies centred around the couple’s love story. Mark just moved from Toronto to New Brunswick with his wife and two young kids to enjoy life and officiate weddings by the sea.
PRESENTATION:
How to Write Your Couple’s Love Story
-The Formula to Rave Reviews and Getting Booked Solid –
Telling your couple’s love story in their wedding ceremony doesn’t just thrill everyone there and get you 5-star reviews. There’s a practical angle, too: it gives you a huge competitive advantage in a crowded officiant market, sets you apart as the premiere officiant in your city, and means you command a premium fee. But how do you write a love story without taking hours and hours? And what parts of their history do you focus on? Fortunately, there’s a system (phew)! Mark shares the formula in this session:
– Ask your couple just 5 questions to build a rousing love story
– Write your officiant speech in 6 concise parts
– Use the same replicable workflow every time and build a brand that books you solid
By purchasing a ticket, you will also have access to replay the entire conference later, so if you can’t participate live on 8/7/2019 then you can still get all of the information and won’t miss a thing. Tickets go on sale on May 30th, 2019 – if you have any questions please contact us at info@iapwo.org. We can’t wait to “see” you on Wednesday, August 7th!
