I went.
I will say that I am glad I went. I've recently started Mystery Shopping on a more regular basis. (I had done it casually in the past). The amount of knowledge that I gained along with the networking opportunities made me feel like it was time well spent.
I am planning on going to the next one in California.
I did not make it to the Friday evening events so I cannot comment on those.
However, I attended all of the Saturday seminars as well as two courses on Sunday: The Ethics class and the "How to Write Better Reports" class. Both of these ended with a test and a certification.
The people associated with the MSPA spoke about how they are coming up with new certifications which will be attached to members names in their database, which is currently being worked on.
Two video courses were offered as well although I did not take those since they were given at the same time as the two courses I took.
WalesMaven, the people I met from the MSC's seemed to be mainly the owners and managers. I did not meet any editors (except for the one lady who led the report writing course I took on the last day). I also did not get to meet any schedulers. Although it is possible they were there for the Friday evening event, which I could not make it to.
I would have liked to have met some of them.
Overall, I thought the even was well done.
The speakers and courses they had were relevant to a relatively new shopper like myself. Perhaps more seasoned shoppers may not have gotten as much out of the courses. For seasoned shoppers this even may be more about facetime and networking.
Topics included: How to set yourself up in business, the benefits of being a member of MSPA, MSPA in Europe, there was a roundtable discussion with some of the Industry leaders, When Shops Go Horribly Wrong, Completing and writing great restaurant shops and a seminar by Vicky Henry where she gave some insights into her business and talked about professionalism in the industry.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2014 03:51PM by HeatherB.