This recorded webinar on how to make the most of your in-person conference experience through Connection, Community, Collaboration, and Content. Learn practical strategies to engage effectively before, during, and after the event—whether it’s networking with confidence, finding collaboration opportunities, or leveraging conference content for professional growth.
Dean Phelus, Editor in Chief, Museum & Senior Director, Special Projects and Cecelia Walls, Assistant Director, Member Resources from AAM along with Hannah Hethmon, Communications Manager, Federation of State Humanities Councils provide a lively session on how to build your conference confidence.
Resources
Networking & Engagement Action Plan Worksheet
AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo
Register for the Annual Meeting
Transcript
Cecelia Walls:
Hello, everyone, and welcome and thank you for joining us today.
My name is Cecelia Walls. I’m the assistant director of member resource here at AAM. And I’m here with my co presenters for today, Dean Phelus and Hannah Hethmon. Dean oversees our editorial content for Museum Magazine, book publishing, leadership programs, and the conference of the Americas. He’s been at the Alliance for over two decades where he previously provided supervision for the meetings and professional development department. And international programs as well. Hannah is the communications manager at the Federation of State Humanities Councils. She was a freelance podcast producer for museums, and cultural nonprofits and served as the membership marketing coordinator at the American Association of State and Local History.
Since, Hannah has attended dozens of museums and public history conferences in The US, UK, and in Europe. So today, we’ll be offering some practical advice on how to make the most of your in-person conference experiences through four pillars, connection, community, collaboration, and content. So first, Dean and Hannah will offer their insights on how to prepare preconference to do during the conference, and what to do post conference.
There will also be a breakout session where we’ll break everyone out to practice networking and to meet new people. If you’re attending via a phone or on a tablet, the breakout bun functionality may not work for you. But if you are unable to or if you do not want to participate in that portion of this webinar, I’ll let you know when we’ll be back for a q and a portion at the end. And you can use the same link you used to enter the first time to reenter.
You should also see a section for resources on the right-hand side under the chat and the q and a function. Where you will see an action plan handout that you can download and take with you. And you can use that as you’re planning out your conference attendance. And also, a sheet called conversation starters that you can use during the breakouts.
We encourage you to participate in the chat and I see a lot of you already doing so. Thank you. And we ask that you put any questions into the q and a tab. So, that we can keep all the questions, in order and make sure that we get everything answered for you.
We are recording the webinar, but we will not record the breakout session, so don’t worry about that. And, you’ll be able to access the recording as registrants for one month. Post webinar, via the same link that you used to enter. AAM members will also have access to the recordings going forward on our website.
Please feel free to click the CC button if you would like to follow along using closed captions. So now why does it make a difference to prepare for in person common conferences? Well, they’re more than just attending sessions. Right? It’s an opportunity to build meaningful connections, engage with your community, foster collaborations, and, of course, maximize your learning. And many people, including myself, find networking very challenging. Some of my challenges, I find, are you know, not knowing how to start.
The conversation and approach new people, feeling overwhelmed just by this huge space with so many people. And then finding the right people to connect with. I want to, I mean, people who are working in similar spaces that I am.
And just not knowing how to sustain those relationships after the event. So, the good news is we’re here today to provide you with some strategies and some tools that will help you navigate in person events and in particular the upcoming AAM annual meeting and museum expo.
So, I hope we’ll be able to build some strong relationships and, give you some actionable insights. And now, Dean, I will turn it over to you.
Dean Phelus:
Thanks, Celia. It’s nice meeting you all. And look forward to welcoming you in person at the AM Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. I actually have been at the organization for over thirty years. And my first annual meeting was many years ago when I remember the experience being very overwhelming. And so, I’m here to provide my insights on how to make you feel less overwhelmed than I did, when I first attended my annual meeting AM annual meeting.
I tend to think of the annual meeting and in preparation for it, it’s like a journey. And the best thing to do is to study the program that’s online and map out the sessions that you want to attend in each time slot, the other events that you want to attend, the other activities that you want to attend so that you have a good plan in terms of at least where you want to start your journey at the end of the meeting. Of course, it can always change. But at least you have, a road map.
Also, you, the app is gonna be ready. The any meeting app’s gonna be ready on our website soon. And there’s an opportunity for you to make plan your schedule or save your schedule within the app. And also, there’s an opportunity to do that, on the AM website. So as Celia mentioned, I see the annual meeting and focusing in on what I call the three c’s. The first one is content. Just wanted to give you a little background on how that gets developed. And how it did get developed. So, we started thinking about the annual meeting theme last year in January. And one of the questions that I had always wondered about that I posed that I thought we could explore at this year’s annual meeting was the fact that we know through research that museums are one of the most trusted sources of information.
And yet, I stopped and paused and said, well, how are they the most trusted sort?
Sources of information? And one of the questions that we need to be asking in order for us to sort of uphold that trust? And so that was the whole impetus for the annual meeting theme this year. And we typically set the theme up in such a way that we explore it from different perspectives or angles, which we call subject tracks. And so, this year, we wanted to really untangle what it meant to be trust trustworthy, through what we call the four p’s. It was purpose, practices, processes, and programs.
And that theme was unveiled at the end of meeting last year. The end of meeting theme for next year is being developed, and it will be unveiled at this year’s annual meeting. But, and then once the that is unveiled to the to the field, Usually, people are thinking about how they might develop a session or a poster session or a learning lab that might, address the theme and encourage people any of any of the field that is working in areas related to the theme or has something that they’d like to share with the field. Encourage them to submit succession proposals, which usually come in to us in September or October each year.
To actually select out of those the session proposals that would be part of this annual meeting. How that was done is through, how that was done was through a content advisory committee. And the content advisory committee is composed of about museum professionals that represent the field. They’re from different geographies. And they’re from, different backgrounds and working in different functional areas.
And, it was during that meeting, which is a meeting that takes place over a couple hours, a couple days. The committee ultimately decided which proposals were going to be forwarded on to a recommended part of the end of meeting program. So, I think it’s really, really critical for you to really pay attention to and go through the program that that’s online and make decisions, in advance on what sessions that you’d like to attend as well as, like, what which events you’d like to attend. But initially, I would suggest the best way to start your experience is by attending the general session that will happen, in the first day
of the conference. It’s the largest convening of all our museum professionals. There’s about, attendees that are, attending the general session. And this year, the general session is gonna be titled Testaments and Truth. And in trust, and it will, engage some of some highly respected community leaders in Los Angeles to talk about, their insight and perspectives on how museums can build trust through transparency, accountability, and authentic partnerships?
With regard to the whole notion of connection, I would say some of the best places in which to do that is through the two of the evening events. So, there’s, like, a connect networking event that’s gonna be on May from seven to PM, and that’s gonna be at the LA Plaza Des Culture De Artes. And also, there’s going to be the AM party that’s gonna be in May. From seven to PM.
And that will be, at a few of the museums that are in a museum campus which include the natural history museum, the California Science Center, and the African American museum in LA. And the two things that I want to mention with regard to those evening events are that I suggest that if you’re interested in attending them that you purchase your ticket in advance.
Just to know that those events, the buses for those events will leave from the convention center, and they’ll return attendees back to the convention center at the conclusion of the event. They’re also experiential learning opportunities, which are opportunities for attendees to go into museums and have face to face experiences with their colleagues to learn about, certain museum practices or innovation in museum practices, that are going on in some of these museums. You’ll find those in the program as well. I know that some of them are already sold out. But there are a few that are still, open and I’m taking additional attendees.
Those are also very good, networking opportunities.
The just an FYI, I will be making the similar presentation, at a first time attending welcome, the, May from : to :AM, and if you want to drop by and meet me face to face, I’m happy to meet you and talk to you a little bit in person about how I can help you, navigate this experience and how I can connect you to others. And make this a meaningful experience for you.
With regard to community, one of the ways that we advance that us through what we’re calling these neighbor hubs. And they will go on during the lunch hour in the late afternoon in May and May and those are opportunities in in which groups can gather based on their interest, whether it’s an affinity group, or whether it’s a functional group like curators or collections people, so on and so forth. And it’s kind of a very open it’s not very structured program, but it’s a good way just to meet other people who share similar interest in and begin conversations with them. And I would recommend that if you’re really interested in being engaged and connected to the field, in a meaningful way, that the Neighbor Hubs are a good place to do that.
I will say that also in my experience, there are a couple strategic locations that, are gonna be very important for you to be aware of and where there are a lot of activities going on. There’s museum expo, which is, where we have about, service providers, people in the industry, developing the latest products and the late latest services and merchandise to support museum programs and operations, and it’s a good place to learn what’s out there in terms of making your jobs, a little easier to do or to improve your efficiency in some of the work that you already do. But there are some other activities that go on in the hall as well. There’s an opening reception that will be on Wednesday the seventh, during the lunch hour, : to :PM where you’ll be able to get some, great food and be able to mingle with others. There’s also throughout the conference, there’ll be food and beverages available for feed there in the museum expo. And there’s also solution lab that will go on in Museum Expo, and these are presentation thirty minutes in length where, you’ll learn about some of the innovations that are going on in our industry through various different service providers and how they can you in the work that you do.
We also have another strategic location within the museum expo, which is the AM Resource Center and that’s where you can come and meet some of the staff at AAM and learn more about some of the programs and services that they oversee at AAM and learn a little bit about how you can take advantage of, being a member of a, and the types of things that we do in order to support you, in your work. And located right next to the resource center is the AM bookstore, and this is another great congregating space It’s very informal, but we bring a lot of our publications that we published on all sorts of museum practices and sorts of functional areas, where you are able to review those books and able to purchase those books, any of those books that might be interest to you in in the work that you’re doing. They’re also gonna be book signings in the bookstore by some authors of recently published AM books. And for the first time this year, we’re, launching something called BookWise, which is a book talk series where we will have museum practitioners in conversation with some of the authors of our recently published books.
And if in fact there’s any questions that up along the way, the other strategic location for you is the information desk or the AAM registration desk where those the staff that are at those desks are very familiar with what goes on at the end of your meeting and can help you if in fact, you’ve kind of lost your way. They’ll provide you the correct direction, in which to proceed. And I think that’s all I have to say right now. With regard to the end of meeting.
I know that I’ve been involved now in over of them. I oversaw about of them. They’re fantastic learning experiences. You just need to be open and curious and explore and not be afraid to, just introduce yourself to new people, And I’m here, at AM all the time. I’m happy to answer any of your questions in advance of the annual meeting. Or during the annual meeting or after the annual meeting, and I’m going to before the end of this, this convening, I’m gonna put my email address in the chat feature so that you can reach out to me if you had any other questions. And now I’m gonna hand it over to Hannah Hethmon, and she’s gonna tell you a little bit of her experience about the annual meeting and how you can make it, more meaningful for yourself.
Hannah Hethmon:
Great. Hi, everyone. I’m gonna share my screen. Because I have some slides because I always talk off slides. Know yourself. Right?
Alright. Let’s turn this slideshow. So, Dean my slides look good. Everyone can see them. Yep.
Okay. So, great. So, yeah, I’m gonna talk about that. So, for me, I love going to conferences. Like I said, my introduction in the beginning, I probably have gone to dozens of conferences. It’s how I built my business. You might know Museums and Strange Places, or my work is better known in creative audio. To me, conferences are a great way to find out to learn about a community and to just get connected. So, for me, networking, is a scary word I know for a lot of people. And I would not say I’m a naturally like, kind of person who’d be good at it. It’s something I practiced over the years and learned to process these. And plans for myself that helped me overcome the kind of social anxieties that I can kind of put that aside and be like, this is a professional experience. Going to do these tasks and these activities that I have designed for myself.
Because this is the role, and I don’t worry so much about the personal thing. So, for me, networking is about being connected, and that helps reframe it. So, it’s about being connected in the sector and the field that we want to thrive in professionally. So, it’s about building professional community over time, right, knowing people professionally and growing your knowledge of the field. The more you know about the field, the more you can thrive in it.
So, connection. We’re gonna focus on the four things as well. Approaching people is one of the hardest things. Right? So, I’m gonna start with add events in between sessions. You heard about a lot of places where you can mingle with people, like outside sessions. Events, the evening events. These are great places to run-in to people. Right? Where it’s more comfortable you’re walking. And I like to say conference rules when it comes to, like, toddler rules. You know, toddlers could just go up and be like, hi. It was just my nephew who was just staying with me. He’s like, hi. I’m four to everyone he saw.
So, you can just go up and say, hi. I’m so and so to people. Even if that would be weird in real life. So, know that the rules are a little bit different. Everyone is there with the same interest and purpose. Right? So, I would say look for people standing on their own don’t be afraid to walk up, be like, hey. Can I join you here? And be like, hey.
Looking for someone to talk to. Right? Just walk up and make conversation. I’ll get to that in the next slide, but feel free to just walk with people.
It’s harder to approach a group if people are already talking. So again, I look for those people standing on their own, people who are looking up. And likewise, make yourself approachable. So, if you’re at an evening event, you’re in the middle and you’re looking to meet people, you’re in a mix or a session or whatever, it may be tempting to kind of pull out your phone and be as a little protect right, to look at a book, to look at your program, I would say take a moment to stand there and look around. And be open and be approachable. Look like someone who’s looking for someone to talk to, and you might have someone come up to you and save you some of the work.
And then if you’re in a session, this just seems really obvious, but I see people all the time sort of sit in the back or sit very far away from each other. Sit one seat away from someone. Sit up near the front. You know, go into the session, and start sitting next to people and talking to people. You know, people are nice. Everyone’s there. And have a conversation starter sort of ready to go. I usually have, like, go to things that I’ve I like to say I’ve AB tested. You know, just test it out some conversation starters, see what people respond to.
And I’ll get to that again in the next slide. But, you know, have something ready that you know this is how I’m gonna try and approach people, my little go to. It may be cheesy, but that’s the name of the game. And with all of this, sometimes people don’t want to talk, and that’s okay. Read body language. Let people be. Some people are just there to learn. People have to be there for work.
They won’t be the people you get to know. So, in terms of conversation starters, this is the big one. Right? So how do you begin the conversation? You’ve walked up to someone. You’ve been brave enough.
Have some general ones. You know, I what I miss about school, I always miss about school that I loved in conferences was at school you’d be like, well, what’s your degree? Riley, there’s all these comps, conversations that everyone’s having all the time. So, find out what that is for, you know, museums. It’s, hey, you know, so where are you coming from? What museum are you at? These kinds of questions that everyone has an answer to and that allows you to have a go to that you can talk to everyone. You know, how was the trip over? Oh, that museum? Oh, I heard about that. What are you working on? Right?
General questions. What I love at any conference, no matter what the conference topic is, been to any interesting sessions so far, or what did you go to this morning? I went to this conference session. I was really interesting. What are you going to next? I can’t decide between this track and the that track. What are you what are you trying to learn? Right?
So, connect, get people to give you advice on where to go. One way that’s good to connect with a range of people at conferences is asking if they’ve been to the conference before. That’s a good one. So, you can kind of position yourself. Oh, I’ve never been to this conference before. It’s a bit overwhelming. Have you or whatever. It’s awesome. There’s so many people. Have you attended before? If they’re new, you have that to bond over. If they’ve got a bunch, you can ask them more follow-up questions. Well, how what’s your top tip?
Right?
People love to give advice, so asking people’s kinda informal advice in that way is a really good way to get a conversation started. And I would say think about questions that people are interested to answer. Right? Do you have any job openings? It’s not. Right? Or, you know, how can II don’t know? But so, what are you hoping to learn today? Like I said, asking I love to ask what people are working on. That’s my go to. People say, I’m at the so and so museum. And I go and I have no idea what it is. And I go, oh, that’s so interesting. What are you what are you working on right now? And everyone likes to talk about what they’re working on. So that’s a really just one of my goes to solid ones. You can ask questions.
Can learn. It’s also a great way just to find out what’s going on in the field. This has been really helpful for me in my business. I needed to know what museums were doing generally. So being able to hear whatever it was working on and then bring that back up in conversation was a really valuable tool. Even if that person in never made a permanent connection. And again, at the end of the day, remember, some people just don’t want to talk. And that’s okay. Read some body language. Know when people want to be left alone. Don’t take it personally. Right?
One more thing that I didn’t put on here, is I would call this maybe a gimmick. If you’re the type of person, if you’re feeling like, I can’t do this. This still really stressful.
Have maybe an informal survey you sit down to someone like, hey. How are you doing today? Hey. Before the session, I’m doing an informal survey to find out if anyone else has doing anything if anyone’s doing anything cool with, like, school tours. Right? Do you guys do school tours at your museum? You could even have a piece of paper. You could be taking down notes. People want to be helpful. You could be, hey. I’m trying to find out, you know, what’s going on in terms of this. I’m trying to find out if anyone else is working with this software. Have you heard of this software? No? And then that can lead to another conversation. So that might be another also, sometimes people like to have, like, if you have stickers from your museum or a handout or something like that that you can kind of use to sort of create space and engage people in a conversation, that’s a great way to go.
And it’s important to practice active listening. I think a lot of times the networking, we’re, like, thinking about what we can get out of this conversation. But that doesn’t lead to genuine connection. And the whole point is creating this this community, and we’re a very genuine well meaning, lovely community museum people. This isn’t like sales. Right? So, people want to make genuine connections even though it’s in that professional space.
So, stay tuned in to what someone is saying and enjoy learning from them, enjoy hearing what they’re talking about, without thinking about how you can kinda talk about yourself. It’s great to talk about yourself as well, but sometimes it’s just about learning. Ask follow-up questions. That’s always the thing. If you’re thinking about something, think about what else you want to know from them about that. Know, be interested in what they are saying.
Like I’ve said several times, read body language. Know when the conversation is over. You can have short interactions. Sometimes that turns into a connection that you take with you. Sometimes you just talk to someone, you learn something interesting, or sometimes you just talk to someone, you don’t learn anything interesting, but you practice your social skills. And that’s how I like to think about it. Because it can feel very like, oh, I have to talk to this many people or whatever, but it’s okay that sometimes you talk to people and nothing comes of it.
That’s how life works. And then wrap up with intention. I think if you’re at an event, it can feel sometimes even if you’re having a great time or whatever conversation with someone, oh, I’m stuck now. I can’t go network with someone else. I’ve talked to this person for the rest of the night. But for me, especially when I was running my business and I was like, I need to meet people, I would say, okay. Well, it was really nice talking to you. I’m gonna go take a lap around the event. You know, the evening events at AM, they’re huge. The whole conference is big. I’m gonna go check out the expo. I’ll see you later. See you around. It’s totally fine to break off You’ve had your conversation. You’ve gotten what you need out of this. Now break off and go meet someone else. Don’t feel afraid to do that as well. Just like you can walk up to someone, you can walk off. And then if you want to maintain that right, if you make sure you get people’s name, first of all, bare minimum. It was nice talking to you. Can I add you on LinkedIn? Do you have a card? Don’t be afraid to sometimes you feel like, okay. I can’t ask for something, like, you’re not asking people to become your friend. Right? You’re just asking, hey.
You were interesting. I’d like to save you somehow. Right? They add you on LinkedIn. Do you have a card?
You don’t have to ask to stay in touch. Just get that little connection, and then you can add them You can send them an email. You can find them on LinkedIn using their card, whatever. But know, just collect the data.
Of who you’re talking to. And, collaboration, I think finding shared interest in potential partnerships. Makes networking seem less scary. Right? This is what it’s about. That’s something we like to do. And for this, I really think it’s about starting from a place of curiosity and learning. Not about what can I get from this person? Can I get a job from this person? Can I get a whatever from this person?
It’s about building over time and forming genuine connections. You never know what information you’re going to need to know later. Again, like I said, building knowledge is the field, building knowledge of what tools people are using. You might later go, ah, we need a tool that does this. I was talking to someone who they were talking about this software. That bird’s eye view of your field can be really, really useful as you are navigating your own role, but especially once you go to job search. And I love to learn the lingo and buzzwords. I think this is really important. Like, what words are people using Programming and curation. Obviously, we know that. But are people talking about, you know, things have come up that that I can agree to be on my head, but what are the terms that people are using? Not only does it help you search for valuable information, right, and look up the latest information, but also helps you sound like you belong in your industry. And that might sound a little cheesy or fake, but that’s how it works. You learn, lingo, you learn the terminology, like interpretation, this is something that we all know. If you’re coming from outside the museum field, interpretation is an important word that helps us describe what we do. So, learning those lingo and buzzwords by just being around other museum people and to them is really valuable.
And, you know, just find your people. Look for people. Decide what people you want to build a community with. I want to find people who do, this part of his I want to find people who share an identity to me and are in the museum field. I want to find people who are job searching and learn from them. And find out where they’re talking to each other. They might be on LinkedIn. They might be on a Discord. Wherever. So, kind of get to know that. That can be really helpful.
I don’t have too much to say about engaging in sessions. For me, once I’m in the session and it started, I’m usually focused on learning. But if you want to ask questions at the end, I think asking a question that you think other people might be wondering can be helpful. And by asking a question, then sometimes you can connect with another person in the session who had the same kind of concern or follow-up or whatever. And I also sometimes like to go up to people who have asked questions. So, I liked your question at the end. I was also thinking and that’s a great way to start a conversation after the session. And if the speaker is really interesting and you feel like you want to talk to them, but you don’t have a question, I think go up and say, I really enjoyed this session. Know, I don’t want to take too much of your time, but, like, this is really helpful for me. And thank you. And that might turn into conversation connection as well. So, I think feel free to do that.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I know me, I’m an overachiever. So, whatever I do, whether networking, whatever, I’m like, I’m gonna do it the best. But, like, have fun. These conferences are huge. The AM conference is huge. Can be overwhelming. So, when it comes to your networking goals, set reasonable goals. Maybe it’s talk to three people at the evening event. You know, you don’t have to talk to everyone. Maybe it’s to make one meaningful connection per day. Maybe to find one other person who’s working on field trips or whatever it is and get their email address. You know, just set yourself a little goal and don’t worry if you don’t meet it. But that gives you kind of, oh, I’ve met that. So now I can kind of take off the pressure.
Know your limits in terms of evening events. Me, I reach I reach a maximum. You know, I maybe have talked to three people, four people at evening event, and I’m on. I’m bubbling them. And then I’ve I hit my limit, and I’m done. And I need to go and go back to the hotel and be alone for four hours. Before then before I go to bed. So, if that’s your situation, whatever it is, if you’re tired, you know, enjoy the event, go out, try and make an effort, meet one person, but, like, know your limits. Take care of yourself.
Lean into your interests and strengths. If you’re analytical, you know, maybe keep track of the people you’ve met and list the things that you have found out. If you are artistic, again, maybe some stickers or something to give out.
Figure out what it is that you do best and lean into that part of networking. And this is the most important. This last point is the most important thing.
This is a long game. Good networking is about creating connection and building community and growing knowledge over time. The connections that you make at conferences it might be small, and it might not feel like anything happens out of them, but, like, they can years later. Like, I did a small met someone in a small way that I didn’t even remember at an ASLH conference. And then, like, four years later, they hired me. They were like, hey. Do you remember us? We followed you at this conference because we talked, and now you’re doing this podcast thing. So, we want to hire you, and they went on to be one of my most long-term clients for, like, four years and really nice people that I got to know. And so, things have kinda popped up after years especially if you add people on LinkedIn. You stay in touch.
You meet them at other conferences, it doesn’t have to you don’t have to walk away with, like, something from each interaction. I think that’s important to remember. And it makes it more fun. Right?
And that’s my final slide. But my major point there is just to think don’t think about networking as, like, a corporate whatever thing. Think about it as a way to meet awesome other museum people that you can share your passion with. And learn about the world that you love and the field that you love and build a community that over time will get back to you and offer you the connections that you need for practical things like collaboration and jobs.
Cecelia Walls:
Those were really great tips. Thank you so much, Hannah and Dean.
So many really great suggestions that I think everyone can put into practice, and I’ll give one more tip. Always have a pen or a writing implement handy. I I’m constantly looking for something to write with to jot down on that business card that I just got. Oh, we had this conversation about such and such. So, I think it’s always helpful to have a writing implement on hand.
So now we’re going to break everyone out into groups. The rooms will have no more than folks in them. Some may have more; some may have less. But take a quick moment, if you have not already done so, to look over on the right-hand side, there’s a section called resources. In that resources section, there is a conversation starter sheet. On that is a little template where you can kind of create your introduction, to folks in the room. We’re gonna cut it down to fifteen minutes instead of twenty. So, talk to each other, but take the first five minutes or so to kinda introduce yourselves to each other. And use that framework to create craft your intro. And for those of you who cannot join us in the break outs, we’ll be back on the main stage about two or so.
Welcome back everyone. I hope you had some good conversations. And that you met some new folks, and that you are able to practice a little bit of your, making connections and feeding communities and everything like that. We are gonna set aside a little time to answer questions if you have any. They’re like there is one question currently in the q and a.
About how to buy tickets for off-site tours. If you go into your registration and re log in and kinda go through that, again, you can add the ticket into your registration from there. Ariel also linked out to a page about frequently asked questions where you can read a little bit more about how to add those onto your registration you’ve already registered. We’re happy to answer any other question that you have right now.
Okay. There are a lot of concurrent sessions. Yes. You are correct. What is your advice on how to select which to attend? Hannah? Dean? Answers?
Dean Phelus:
I I typically say the best thing to do is to identify, number one, each one of those sessions are identified by a specific track. If you’re interested in how, the implications for trust with regard to our operations and policies your programs, or your processes, or your practices or mission and purpose That’s a good way into it. Also, I would suggest another way into it is with regard to if you read the description, if you think perhaps it would appeal to you based on the current functional area that you have in museums or a functional area that you might want to have in museums. So that’s what I would suggest a good way in is.
Cecelia Walls:
Hannah?
Hannah Hethmon:
I like to, look through so shortlist maybe by title, what looks good in each block, and then go ahead and look at the speakers. Sometimes, oh, it might be more academic. That’s what I want. This is a person’s actually a practitioner. This is what I want. And see what their experience is and how they actually describe what they’re gonna talk about. And then I always have, like, my primary and then maybe a backup depending on, one, what I’m feeling in the moment, and then two, honestly, the session’s not that interesting after all, then I have somewhere to quick speed out to. So that I can make sure I get the most out of every block. But I always I always look at the speakers.
Cecelia Walls:
That’s a that’s a good point. I do that as well, Hannah. I will have a two in each slot and be like, okay. And then I’ll go to one. And it is okay to step out if you’re not finding that it’s gonna meet your needs. So, feel free that you can, you know, move around a little bit if you need to.
Dean Phelus:
Yeah. I agree. Cecelia. You can roam if you go into a session and it’s not appealing to you. Don’t feel compelled to stay for the entire session.
It’s we don’t require pre attendance. You saying what your preferences are and what sessions up you’re gonna go to, and it’s absolutely mandatory. So, you know, feel free to roam or feel free to take a break.
Cecelia Walls:
Yeah.
So next question is, can you talk more about the poster sessions and the prerecorded sessions linked on the conference schedule?
Dean Phelus:
Yeah. So, the prerecorded sessions, we had so much great content, that we wanted to create an to engage some of that content that wasn’t gonna be presented as a session. As a prerecorded, I think it’s thirty-minute session on what they might have they might have been delivering on-site if their session was presented on-site. So those are gonna be shown in a specific room location, and it it indicates it. And it indicates what, the presentation will be on. Most likely, it’ll probably be in a continuous loop. It might be as; they’ll be shown as they’re presented in in the program. And you’re free to drop in and listen to them if your schedule permits.
The poster sessions are sessions that are usually taking place in Museum Expo. They’re thirty minutes in length. And what they are opportunities normally, they’re single case studies and opportunities to learn about practices and programs. Where people, who are actually delivering the content are demonstrating that visually via a poster board.
So that’s the distinction there. They’re shorter in length and they’re intended to be very visual. So, that’s a great question, and I will pose that to the meetings team because I don’t, I don’t have the answer to that. But,
Cecelia Walls:
And there is a follow-up question to the prerecorded sessions.
“Are these prerecorded sessions available outside of the conference? If we would like to attend more?”
Dean Phelus:
a it’s a great idea and a Cecelia, do you have anything more to add to that?
Cecelia Walls:
No. I believe they will be, but we do not know for certain just yet, yeah, whether or not they will be.
Dean Phelus:
Okay.
And, Cecelia, can you just talk a little bit about sessions that we might be making available after the annual meeting?
Cecelia Walls:
We are going to be recording of the sessions that are taking place. Well, probably eight of the sessions and a few of the workshops. Will be recorded and available behind the member wealth for members following the conference. And there may be availability for as well at some point, but we’re not quite sure about that yet. A list of those sessions will go out soon.
We had a question about what invigorates you in getting prepped for a “How do you gear yourself up? To become present?”
Hannah Hethmon:
I, I always had my first year too. I went like, for like, when I was first in my business, I did my podcasting business. I had, like, I went to, like, conferences in one year. And I had favorite conference shirts. And I like to wear bright orange and yellow. I had, like, different shirts. But that way I had the same color every day, and I was more recognizable because you remember people’s clothes more than their face. So anyway, but also, I felt good. I felt bright and colorful. And I was always, you know, have a good night sleep, packed lots of snacks. I would say lots of snacks in my bags that I don’t feel grumpy or tired and have a good breakfast. So, I always have stuff in the hotel room to make sure that I have the breakfast that I want so that I’m ready to talk to people. And the coffee that I want and the oat milk that I want before I have to talk to anyone.
Dean Phelus:
Well, that’s a great way to get attention, actually. I didn’t ever really think about that. But so, one I think one of the important things about an annual meeting is it’s not only about in the entertainment, the education, the environment. But I always see it as an opportunity for escapism.
And it really gives you a chance to be someone you always wanted to be. And maybe if you’re an in introvert, it gives you a chance to tech test out those skills that might strengthen, you or make you be more of an extrovert than you thought you were. And there you know; the evening events are great opportunities also to explore different sides of yourself. So that’s how I normally encourage you to think about your experience. Going into it. And, you know, I I’ve gone to some of these events as different personas. If you believe it, one year, I was actually Elvis Presley, which is hard to believe. So, anyway, that that’s what I would suggest.
Cecelia Walls:
Thank you, everyone. I think we are at time. I will send us off with a short video if y’all want to stick around for it. If not, thank everyone for attending, and thank you, Dean and Hannah, for your great insights.
