This is a follow-up to my previous post on my week long stint at the Army Diversity Leadership and Training Symposium in Kissimmee, Florida last week. I wanted to go more in depth on my eye-opening experience there.
Previously I had worked at other conferences such as the SHARP (Sexual Harassment & Response Prevention) Summit back in March, SEDAT (Senior Executive Diversity Awareness Training) back in August and the AUSA Conference this past October. But I feel like none of those could prepare me for the juggernaut conference known as the the 2010 Army Diversity Leadership and Training Symposium. This conference was essentially all those conferences I have worked at rolled up into one, times five and adding some steroids into the mix (kidding on the steroids).
From the moment I step foot into the work zone, my whole team and I were working non-stop to make sure this symposium was a success. And I feel it was. A lot of great speakers and workshops were held, that I hope educated soldiers on the importance of appreciating their fellow comrade’s diverse attributes and what it means to be apart of the global workforce in 2010.
Great presenters I had seen before such as Dr. Samuel Bertances, Dr. Andre Sayles and Carolyn Collins were in attendance as well as some new presenters such as Dr. William Guillory and Ramon Barboza.
I took away a lot from working at the conference (besides the 5 pounds I gained from eating out every night) on how to manage and run a conference of that magnitude. Some key things I learned:
- Backwards Plan like there’s no tomorrow
- Make sure the staff is briefed on VIP protocol/who they even are and look like
- Truly stick to cutting off your registration after a designated point
- Bring backup supplies for areas such as registration, printing, collateral materials
- Use walkie talkies 🙂
As for the location, well that was a treat. If I didn’t end up having to work 13 hours a day, I would definitely taken advantage of the warm weather. Also, if anyone is thinking of a reasonably priced place for vacation over the winter months, Florida is definitely worth venturing to. I suddenly see the thought process of snow birds now.
Here are some more pictures I took of the conference and the one time I got to have a little personal time and visited Downtown Disney.
