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IEA Conference Wrap Up
Presented by Thom Bourne
Upon arriving at last week's luncheon, members were treated to a slideshow highlighting photos from the OXA's 75th Anniversary Gala as well as the different IEA Chapters that were in attendance at this year's conference.
During his talk, Thom provided members with a preliminary financial wrap up of the conference along with some interesting statistics regarding member participation and attendance.
- 80 Conference attendees
- 48.5% of attendees were OXA members
- 242 Gala attendees
- 27 OXA members participated on conference organizing committees
- 45 of the 66 OXA members provided cash or value in kind support of the conference. This translates into a 69% level of commitment by members
Although the conference organizing committee faced several challenges while planning this event, their commitment to working through these challenges has resulted in bringing to light some issues that the IEA will look at changing/updating in the future.
One of the issues that the organizing committee found most frustrating was a lack of being able to get in touch directly with the individual members of each IEA chapter. Thom was able to report at last week's meeting, that very soon the IEA will begin sending their monthly newsletter directly to each chapter member using Constant Contact instead of sending it to the Executive Directors for distribution. Some of the other items that will be reviewed as a result of the IEA's work with the OXA and also the regional meetings held during the conference are the IEA's website and Linked-in pages.
Prior to the start of the meeting forms were placed on each table and at the end of his presentation, Thom asked members to use these forms to provide their ideas, suggestions and feedback that would be passed along to the Reno Executives' Association in order to help them continue to build on the strong foundation provided by the OXA at this year's conference. Some of the suggestions received included:
- Ensuring all information distributed to all IEA members
- Business and Marketing sessions
- More "Hard Information" sessions
- Add some outdoor events
- Host city each year should have a gala
- Continue to provide business track for non-Board members/EDs
- Have excellent speakers
At the end of his presentation, OXA President Mardi Friesz, presented Thom with a gift basket from the members of OXA to thank him for all the time, energy and effort that he put into making this conference a great success. THOM, YOU DID A GREAT JOB! THANK YOU!
Thank you also, once again to all those who took part in making the conference the great event it was. Not just by attending, but
also by donating your time, resources, finances, ideas and feedback. You have helped to start something that has the potential to become a great opportunity for learning, meeting new people and making connections.
Several of the OXA members indicated on the feedback forms that they are looking forward to next year's conference in Reno. We hope that many more of you will think about attending in order to not only help support Reno, but also to continue what the OXA has started by elevating the conference to a new level and making it an event that ALL IEA members can/should attend and look forward to!
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