To take a Sabbatical you require two things. First you have to make the time. Second You have to gather content. If it is all coming out of your own pocket, then it makes sense to take advantage of the SSWUG Virtual Conference coming in 2017.
I don’t work at the SSWUG office, and submit my editorials remotely. As a result, there are a lot of cool things happening at SSWUG that I don’t know about any earlier than you. The one that’s coming up now is the fall virtual conference.
SSWUG has a fantastic infrastructure for doing virtual conferences. You won’t have to worry about our bandwidth. Moreover, we are aware that caving out time in your schedule is not always easy. So, we have online training available at any time, for an access fee. However, this same quality training is brought to you through our conference for free.
That’s all you need to know. You can approach you employer to have they provide you paid time to attend. Perhaps get a group of people at your company, and watch together. If your employer is not so enlightened as to contribute to your continuing education, and the value that brings to their company, then perhaps you should invest a couple vacation days of your own on yourself. Take two days and attend the conference from home, or somewhere comfortable.
I can’t think of a more economical option to keep pushing yourself forward.
You can find more information at https://sswug.org/events/.
Cheers,
Ben