In the Before Times, I wasn’t the sort of person to go to conferences. Dragon*Con, ClickerExpo, renaissance fairs, and similar conventions are inherently fascinating to my nerdy self, though my fascination was generally outweighed by the cost, crowds, and commute inherent in such events. Then COIVD-19 struck, and all of those events struggled, floundered, and succumbed, only for a resourceful few to resurrect online.
I am a student of Fenzi Dog Sports Academy (FDSA) and have taken several online classes over the years. FDSA has historically hosted annual bootcamps for students and instructors to meet up in person with their dogs over the course of several days. But in 2020, that was not possible. Similarly, the International Association of Applied Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) was unable to hold their own conference. Their leaders commiserated to one another, then they brainstormed, then they actually made something workable. Practically at the last minute, in March of 2020, FDSA and IAABC put together a joint virtual conference over a three-day weekend with dozens of presenters in chatroom-style classrooms streaming video and answering questions. The video and notes were saved to student accounts, but that didn’t stop me and other attendees from clearing our schedules and gluing ourselves to our computer screens to marathon live presentations for hours on end.
It. Was. AMAZING.
So amazing, if fact, that they did it again in 2021 with even more presenters and students. But 2022 will be the last. Good, nerdy things come in trilogies, after all.
They called it The Lemonade Conference in 2020, as part of that hectic last-minute scramble, to remind all of us to make the best of a bad situation. The whole world had been dealt a bad hand, but our little training community was able to come together and make something sweet out of it. The acronym TLC is a good reminder, too. Some tender, loving care wouldn’t be amiss either. Although we have not been able to meet in person, having the conference virtually allowed FDSA and IAABC to reach a much broader audience, and for the audience to connect with one another.
If that’s not an apt metaphor, I don’t know what is. As animal trainers, we need human connection. We can’t do it on our own. When life hands us lemons, we want to be able to make lemonade, but we need the support of our community to do that. And we must choose our communities with care. If the community wants to sit around and eat bitter lemons, that’s not one I want to be a part of.
I encourage you to be a part of the last Lemonade Conference! But don't drag your feet; it starts tomorrow, February 11, 2022. The website is here.
For further reading:
ClickerExpo hosted by the Karen Pryor Academy
The Art and Science of Animal Training
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