2015 Annual Professional Education Conference (PEC) a Huge Success
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By Tony Ballard
Roughly 125 people attended the 2015 PEC held at the state-of-the-art University of Kansas Edwards Campus. Industry expert Deborah Gardner highlighted an awesome array of speakers and topics at this year’s PEC. Industry experts and successful professionals from other fields contributed to this great event!
Jim Cosgrove, known to many in the KC area (and nationally) as "Mr. Stinky Feet," kicked off the full-day conference with his session "Live Like a Child, Succeed Like a Child." Jim’s high energy session provided some great insight into changing your perspective and simplifying your life to be successful.
The first breakout sessions highlighted an HR panel, "Wi-Fi in the Industry" and "Maximizing ROI." Attendees were fairly evenly split between these three sessions and all left with some great "takeaways" from each session.The second round breakout sessions consisted of "The Future of Meetings – Talking ‘Bout Our Generations" with Deborah Gardner, a LinkedIn session and a Kansas City industry update. A lot of great takeaways were shared from Deborah’s session, as well as the KC industry update. People who attended the LinkedIn session commented that they either wanted more basic information or that the information was too basic for their current needs. We hope to expand on this topic in future meetings to help our members gain a better online presence.
The afternoon sessions began with a heavy topic of "Human Trafficking in the Industry." Our speaker, Michelle Guelbart, provided some great insights into what we should be looking for as we travel to various hotels and some startling statistics about what is currently happening across our nation and around the world. Many in attendance commented about how scary it is that so much could be going on around us and we don’t even know it is taking place. This is likely a topic that will continue to get considerable coverage in our industry moving forward.
The final breakout session featured a Human Trafficking roundtable discussion and an "Innovative Thinking" session by KC’s own Devin Henderson. The roundtable discussion focused on what is taking place in the KC area and what is being done to combat human trafficking of all types. Devin’s session received some of the highest reviews of the day, as he provided some terrific ideas about innovating thinking and keeping yourself relevant throughout your career. Deborah Gardner closed out the day by leading everyone through "Mapping Your Future Success to Win"! Her interactive session provided numerous opportunities for audience feedback, as well as a question-and-answer period involving KCMPI President Phil Allemang, CAS and Tony Ballard, incoming KCMPI president-elect.
The PEC could not continue to be the successful event that it is without the generous support of our sponsors and exhibitors. A special thank you to all of them for their time, prizes and financial contributions. A special thank you also goes to all of those in attendance this year as well!Are you interested in serving on the PEC committee for 2016? If so, contact Tony Ballard at tballard@k-state.edu. A final date has not been established, but it is our hope to hold the PEC in April of 2016. We would love to have you be a part of this event!
All the pictures from PEC are available by clicking here.
