See YOU in Milwaukee!?

During my almost 20 year career as an association professional, I have been privileged to produce or participate in many of the leading professional society’s Annual Conferences. Instead of this making me jaded, I have to share how much I am excited about and looking forward to SMRP’s 2010 and 18th Annual Conference in Milwaukee!!

Your SMRP Conference Team, led by Conference Chair Craig Seibold, meeting staff and all of the SMRP staff have been working hard since the beginning of this year – to produce one the best programs SMRP has offered! Did you know we had 33% more abstracts submitted this year!? That speaks to the high quality educational sessions at SMRP. You can easily figure the best session for you as we’ve formatted these sessions into the Five Pillars from the Body of Knowledge as well as into Fundamentals or Advanced Levels of education.

In addition to the stellar education in these 50+ sessions, we have 11 Workshops and 3 top notch Plant Tours at three high profile facilities. I enjoyed my first Plant Tour back in March to a DuPont Houston facility – I’ve been hooked on these educational and interesting tours ever since!

We have a high profile Keynote Speaker in Clyde Fessler (former VP of Business Development for Harley- Davidson. We have our networking reception at the Harley-Davidson Museum. We have our annual golf tournament at one of the top award winning golf resorts in the country. We have an Exhibit Hall featuring leading companies, a bookstore featuring the latest in M&R publications, and our own SMRP Body of Knowledge Metrics and Benchmarking products for sale.

Milwaukee boasts so many great features and attractions to get attendees excited. They have a convenient, downtown, state-of-the-art convention center now called the Frontier Center [our meeting location!] They have so many unique, off-site meeting venues, they have major attractions within walking distance, and dining and nightlife that turn down time into good times. With value, accessibility, and affordability and friendly people who will make you feel at home, there’s so much to choose here – they say, “Milwaukee is where you want to be!” Check them out in advance at http://www.visitmilwaukee.org/index.php/visitors.

With all of this quality education and all of these incredible features – can YOU really afford to miss this conference? Don’t you want to be Driven by Performance and emPowered by Professionals!?

This economy has left us all reeling…but it’s time to start reinvesting now so we can grow into the future. Let the reinvestment start with you and you commitment to this profession by learning and growing at the SMRP 18th Annual Conference. I look forward to seeing you in Milwaukee!

Barb Dunlavey, CAE
Executive Director
SMRP