Meeting new people, networking, and keeping up on the latest trends, whether it’s publishing, social media, photography, or video is not only important, it’s critical in this ever-changing world of writing, whether its traditional print media or online.

Here Paws for Reflection shares 10 reasons you should make the annual CWA conference, now a sponsor of the exciting MeowWorld a must on your list each and every year.

Pitch your ideas to some of the best editor/agents in the pet world. This has landed Paws’ mom a few magazine writing assignments in 2014. That would not have happened without going to the CWA annual conference.

Meeting lots of cat people, and this year, a whole lot more ‘doggie’ folks. Pet people are just the best. One business owner told me people who take their pets seriously are the most honorable and honest.

Keeping up with cutting edge technology and innovations. Did Instagram even exist a few years ago?

Find out why you need to use social media and online tools, including YouTube and Vimeo, to promote yourself. Gone are the days when someone else marketed you. Today, it’s all up to you to market yourself and create your reputation.

Learn to carve out the reputation you want to project. Didn’t we just say, it’s all about marketing yourself, creating your product, image, and reputation.

Rub elbows with very knowledgable, successful writers and authors. Do we need to say more? But we should because they can share their experiences with us, and we can learn from them.

Have fun. There’s lots more to a CWA conference than just absorbing information. It’s about having fun.

Connecting with new and old pet friends. It’s great to have resources to answer questions and give advice, no matter at what stage of writing you are at.

Share new and old stories. When it comes to writing about cats, or dogs for that matter, the bottom line is really about helping them by sharing information and education about best practices.

Being out there. No matter how successful you are, keeping your face in front of other fellow pet writer’s is important. You need to be a part of something that’s beyond your own walls and your own work.

This year, we should add a few other reasons. With CWA sponsoring MeowWorld, there will be a whole new element to the conference. BarkWorld Expo will give us kitty writers a chance to intermingle and network with the ‘doggie folks’. And we know there’s lot to learn in this fast paced ever-changing world of media.

And Paws’ would be remiss, if we didn’t point out all the swag you get to bring home to the kitties. Check back on Wednesday, for some delightful photos of my cats checking out the swag from the 2013 CWA Annual Conference. Admittedly, they were quite impressed.

Do you attend pet conferences? If so, what’s your favorite part about them? Please weigh in on the discussion and share your thoughts.