Enter This Client Connections Contest for a Chance to Attend the 2024 ASJA Conference for Free

ASJA professional members have a quick and easy way to do three things at once: strengthen relationships with past and existing clients, gain the appreciation of fellow members, and earn the chance to win free admission to the 2024 virtual conference.

How? By entering the Recruitment Contest for ASJA’s signature networking event, Client Connections 2024 – A Virtual Event! (CC24).

Slated for September 26 and 27, CC24 is held in conjunction with ASJA’s 2024 virtual conference.

The winner of the CC24 Recruitment Contest will be the ASJA professional member who recruits the greatest number of registered clients for the networking event that connects writers directly with editors and agents.

The winner will receive free admission to the 2024 virtual conference, which includes free admission to the CC24.

To participate, all you need to do is be an ASJA professional member in good standing, and invite the most editors, content managers, and agents who sign up to attend by August 20, the client registration deadline.

What is Client Connections?

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Client Connections, widely known as “speed dating for clients and writers.”

Client Connections offers ASJA professional members the opportunity to meet and pitch editors, content managers, agents, and others who might want to buy their work. Depending on each client’s needs and preferences, members can use their scheduled one-on-one meetings to pitch story ideas for print and online publication or share a proposal for a nonfiction book. For more detailed information, check out the Client Connection FAQs.

To prepare for the event, the Client Connections committee has been hard at work organizing the September event, including sending out invitations to potential registrants. As of this writing, the committee has secured 18 clients; the goal is 40, including media outlets that pay more than $1/word.

Client Connections is not only a fantastic career-building opportunity for ASJA members, it’s a great opportunity for editors and agents looking for pre-screened talent. For clients who work or live outside of major media hubs such as New York City (where Client Connections 2025 will take place next February), it’s a way to meet up with talented independent writers without the added hassle of travel.

We know from years hosting this event that personal outreach is the best way to recruit clients. That’s where you come in!

Entering the Recruitment Contest

Here’s how to enter the Recruitment Contest:

1. Look through your contacts for publication editors, content marketing managers, literary agents, publishers, nonprofits, government agencies, and other outlets that hire writers.
2. Go to the Client Connections Recruitment Contest spreadsheet on Google Docs. Read the “Instructions ” to familiarize yourself with the process, then proceed to the “Recruitment Contest Database” sheet and add names of the clients you will contact. Fill in your own name and email address so the Client Connections committee knows who to credit if a client agrees to participate.
3. Follow the directions to copy the client “Invitation” template on the contest spreadsheet and paste it into a new email, along with the suggested client email subject line and CC logo.
4. Personalize the email and send it to your client(s). Once a client has officially registered you will receive a point toward the prize. Once the client registration period passes, the Client Connections committee will tally all the points and announce a winner.

Additional contest suggestions, guidelines, and rules

Other things to know:

• We know from experience that a personal touch works best, so send custom notes to individual clients rather than one generic note as a BCC to multiple recipients.
• Because CC24 is virtual, consider first reaching out to clients who are based outside of NYC (check LinkedIn to see where a client lives).
• Only entries from ASJA professional members will be considered. Check the ASJA Membership Eligibility page for an explanation of membership categories.
• Members receive one point for every client who registers; the member with the most points wins.
• Don’t be intimidated! in years past, members have won the contest by recruiting as few as two or three clients.
• If the winner of the Recruitment Contest has already registered and paid for the 2024 virtual conference, they will be reimbursed.
• Client Connection chairs and cochairs are not eligible to participate.

Registration for the 2024 virtual conference will open soon. Be sure to subscribe to the ASJA Weekly newsletter to learn more about the contest and Client Connections and to keep up with conference news and updates about other ASJA events and benefits.

Flex those copy-and-paste chops and start sending!

Cari Shane is the Chair of Client Connections and a member of the ASJA board. This is the third year running Client Connections events. Shane is a freelance journalist, ski addict, hot yoga apologist, Airbnb “Superhost” and Manhattan native who lives in Washington, DC. Her byline has appeared in a variety of outlets including AARP, ESPN’s Andscape, Fast Company, Fodor’s, Insider, Leaps, Scientific American and Smithsonian. She’s also a volunteer editor for Street Sense Media, a non-profit that elevates the voices of DC residents experiencing homelessness.