Cuddlexpo: Professional Cuddler Conference in Chicago, Sep 2018

respectfulrespectful
edited September 2018 in Professional Cuddling

I search for cuddle related things sometimes, and I stumbled across this:

Cuddlexpo: Professional Cuddler Conference (home page)

It's on at the end of September 2018. The organizer turned out to be Fei Wyatt ( @HugsFromFei -- along with @LisaMeece) so it should be good! There is also a free online conference this Friday, March 9th (3-8 pm CST).

Time: Fri, Sep 28, 3:00 pm - Sun, Sep 30, 5:00 pm (schedule).
Location: Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, IL.
Cost: $125 early bird registration ($250 VIP), or $60 for just the three "cuddle events" (see below), or $25 for a single cuddle event. (Plus fees).

There is also a call for speakers, who get a complimentary ticket.

From talking to Fei:

The three cuddle events are suitable for people not involved in the rest of the conference. They are group events with facilitated interaction at the beginning (some icebreakers/guidelines/a few exercises to practice consent & communication), and lots of free time to cuddle each other after afterward. There will be a Cuddle Sanctuary, a Cuddle Party, and a snuggle party lead by different facilitators (so people get to try out the different styles).

The keynote and pre-con workshop speakers are still being finalized, but one will be Marcia Baczynski, co-founder of Cuddle Party. She will also be leading the Saturday night cuddle event. Her pre-con workshop will be a 3-hour marketing workshop on something like "How to get Cuddle Clients without Selling Your Soul".

A "breakout session" is a 70 minute workshop, presentation or discussion. While the 2 keynote presentations will happen at the start of the day, held with everyone gathered in the ballroom, there will be 3 different breakout sessions happening at a time (mostly in smaller meeting rooms). The goal is to have a variety of workshops and discussions around the skills of cuddling, business, ethics, personal growth for practitioners, perspective from clients, facilitating workshops, consent, etc.

Comments

  • HugsFromFeiHugsFromFei

    Thanks for sharing about this!

    Btw, CuddleComfort is one of the sponsors for the online conference. That speaks to how amazing this site is.

  • AndiCuddlesAndiCuddles

    I know this is an older post, but I’ll be attending — anyone else??

  • ubergigglefritzubergigglefritz

    I'm planning on going

  • [Deleted User]EastsideCuddles (deleted user)

    That's awesome! I can't go but so want to!

  • respectfulrespectful
    edited September 2018

    I just took another look at the CuddlExpo site, and noticed the Instagram feed at the bottom of the page. Looks like some interesting speakers:

    -- Epiphany Jordan on the skin hunger epidemic. She's also the author of an upcoming book called Somebody Hold Me: The Single Person’s Guide to Nurturing Human Touch.

    -- Dr. Yoni Alkan on being a male professional cuddler in a predominantly female field. He is an author too, writing The Book of Cuddles.

    -- Cassi Brighter on interacting with trans and nonbinary clients.

    I know @SnugglewithSam will be speaking on a panel and in a workshop too ... not sure who else.

  • SnugglewithSamSnugglewithSam

    Eagerly waiting for them to officially announce me, but yes I'll be speaking there :) I plan to be out there Thursday through Monday

  • respectfulrespectful

    Less than two weeks to go! I'm not even going to CuddlExpo and I'm excited. :)

  • ubergigglefritzubergigglefritz

    I am going :-D First time flying in so many years. Not looking forward to that part :-P

  • CreativeCuddlesCreativeCuddles

    @SnugglewithSam that’s an honor to speak at the conference! Congratulations!

  • MattsWeatherMattsWeather

    Who on this site is at Cuddlexpo in Chicago this weekend?

  • ubergigglefritzubergigglefritz

    I am :-)

  • MattsWeatherMattsWeather

    Nice! How's it going?

  • ubergigglefritzubergigglefritz

    Excellent. So much amazing information for professionals, meeting LOTS of great people, and nightly cuddle parties =) Very glad I came =)

  • respectfulrespectful

    @ubergigglefritz Sounds amazing! What are some things you've learned so far?

    I'm hoping videos will be available. Even though I'm not a professional, this kind of thing is really interesting to me.

  • ubergigglefritzubergigglefritz

    The precon talk on marketing was one of the best (given by one of the original cofounders of Cuddle Party), and one of the first talks I attended on handling conflict (ie - dealing with people pushing boundaries) was top notch as well (given by the founder of Cuddle Sanctuary out in California). There were talks on all different subjects though. My choices were just focused on marketing, boundaries, safety, screening, etc. The evening cuddle parties each night were a great end to the long day though! I was completely busy with expo activities from arrival on Friday until 10pm at night, 930am - 10pm on Saturday, and then 930am until departure on Sunday. It was a fully packed weekend! I really wish I had been able to attend the pose clinic, but I was tempted away by another talk =P There were three talks during each session block, and some of the blocks were REALLY difficult to decide between the options!!!

    Videos will be available at an extra cost.

  • respectfulrespectful

    Thanks for the report @ubergigglefritz!

    Any other people's experiences?

  • respectfulrespectful
    edited October 2018

    I just looked at the Cuddlexpo site again and noticed a link to the program guide. It's really interesting just to read an overview of the topics (click on "Expand all").

    @LisaMeece, @HugsFromFei -- how do you feel it went? Will the talks be available somewhere?

    And will there be another Cuddlexpo?

  • MonkeyNeedsAHugMonkeyNeedsAHug

    I take it CoVid knocked this out of existence for a bit. Hope it resumes in some form.

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