SCBWI British Isles Conference 2022

What's it all about then? My POV...

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 2022 SCBWI British Isles conference in Manchester. This was my first ever SCBWI conference. And it was the first in-person conference since the pandemic, so there was a lot of buzz 🐝 in the lead up to the event. During that time, I received a lot of questions from other illustrators, about SCBWI membership, as it turns out not many illustrators I know are actually members. The general feeling is it is more useful for authors. And I also received questions about the conference itself. Whether it would be useful for illustrators at different stages of their career. For example if, like me, they already had an agent so making connections with agents was not a priority. So I thought these would be the kinds of questions I would address here.

Firstly, if your goal is to meet people in the publishing industry in real life; whether it’s illustrators, authors, agents, editors, booksellers or art directors, then the SCWBI conference IS the place to be. The general attitude is ‘be friendly and chat to anyone and everyone’. Everyone is wearing a name tag so you definitely will recognise your favourite author’s name, or someone you regularly chat to on Twitter, even if you don’t know exactly what they look like. For me, this makes in person events invaluable. Meeting people in real life and consolidating friendships, as well as making new friends and forming new connections is just so so brilliant, and this is a really great place to do it.

As I have an agent, I didn’t put myself under any pressure to network with any agenda, meaning I felt free to chat to anyone and everyone without trying to sell myself or my work. If you are on the look out for an agent or publisher, however, then the SCWBI conference is really geared up for that. There are pitch events, 1-2-1s with publishers and agents, and lots of industry people all over the place who are wonderful and very happy to chat to you.

SCBWI British Isles @SCBWI_BI

Wow what a night celebrating the talent and beauty of everything our SCBWI members have achieved! #scbwicon22

There were Friday and Saturday night social events that were extremely fun and such a great way to meet new people. The Saturday dinner and mass book launch was full of kindness and celebration; congratulating all that the members have achieved in the last few years. Oh and there’s a fancy dress theme. And YES people DO dress up! I definitely will next time! This year the theme was ‘Manchester’

Amazing costumes Naomi Millner and Will Hamilton-Davies!

The illustrator’s sketchbook wall was fantastic, right in the middle of the main area so on display for everyone to see:

Thanks for letting me use this photo Emma Clarke. I didn’t submit anything for the wall, but if I go next year (which I really hope to) then I DEFINITELY will. The wall served as a real conversation starter and I regretted not having my work up there. The work that was on display was really amazing, so many different styles for picture books as well as books for older kids.

For authors, there were lots of books on display and available to buy. And as customers we had the opportunity to buy the book and get it signed by the author or illustrator, which was really brilliant.

As well as networking and promo opportunities, the days are jam packed full with talks, notably this year some FANTASTIC keynote speeches from Alex Wheatle and Jim Field. And also there’s tonnes of workshops to help you with your writing or illustrating. If you think you might get a chance to pop into Manchester and visit the Christmas Markets, think again. The schedule is BUSY. We were asked to choose which workshops we wanted to attend when we booked our tickets, which for me was many months ago. Luckily they send you a confirmation to remind you which you signed up for! But of course, they may not be as relevant to you now and I ended up switching mine a little. There are around 4 options for each slot, and there was a morning and afternoon slot each day. Because of this, I found a lot of the workshops were good overviews or introductions to certain subjects, as its very hard to create a workshop that will be really useful to everyone’s specific needs at any time. I signed up for a range of author and illustrator workshops. Many of the illustration ones were aimed at picture books, which is not an area I am focussing on so they were not totally useful for me. I also think that if you’re an illustrator working in the industry, many of the illustration workshops may feel like revision as they talk about how to find work and give an overview of the whole picture book process. Something you will probably already be familiar with.

So in summary, do I think it’s worth it? Even if you draw but don’t write? EVEN if you are already in the industry? In a word: YES! There’s so much to get out of it, even just the community aspect is worth it on it’s own. But of course this is just my opinion from my experience. And these things are not cheap so most of us have to weigh up whether we can afford the annual membership as well as the cost of the conference, travel and accommodation. I went to this conference thinking it would be my first and last as I’m not sure I can justify the money, but after being there, it was so brilliant, I think I might hang on for one more… at least… 😉