PLENARY NCMA World Congress Q Toy Fair Q LauraPalooza
PRE CON NCMA Contracts With Gen Y
MEETING: National Contract Management As- sociation (NCMA) World Congress 2011, conven- ing at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on July 10–13. The Ashburn, Va.–based NCMA is expecting 1,400 to 1,600 attendees, all of whom work in the procurement industry, many of them in the area of government contracting.
THEN AND NOW: Graduates of NCMA’s leadership-development program were announced at last year’s World Congress (left). This year, “Gen Y Guy” Jason Dorsey (right) is keynoting.
CHALLENGES: Attendance at the NCMA World Congress has grown steadily over the last sev- eral years, even during the recession — which is great, until the next meeting rolls around. NCMA’s board has “watched that trend,” said Director of Meetings Jennifer Coy, “and they of course are expecting [attendance to increase this year], as they should. … However, living in the D.C. area, you’re not blind to the fact that there are spending freezes out there. We’re all definitely concerned and on top of the fact that industries and government agencies may say, ‘You know, we’re just not going to spend any money right now, because we don’t know what’s going to be cut.’”
THERE’S A MEETING FOR THAT? Little Meeting on the Prairie
LAURAPALOOZA: The first-ever conference for “fans, educators, and academics who love Laura Ingalls Wilder,” LauraPalooza 2010 was held on July 15–17 at Minnesota State Uni- versity, Mankato, which also sponsored the event. In addition to panels such as “Loving Laura in a Lindsay Lohan World,” the conference included a trip to nearby Walnut Grove, Minn., home to the Laura Ingalls Wllder Museum (1), which includes an example of a dug- out home (2); a spelling bee (3); and an appearance by children’s book illustrator Cheryl Harness (4). For more information, visit http://beyondlittlehouse.com/laurapalooza/.
INITIATIVES: With an eye on keeping its at- tendance numbers heading northward, NCMA is implementing a number of new features at this year’s World Congress — beginning with a venue that Coy describes as “family-friendly.” She said: “Denver is a beautiful locale.” On the programming level, NCMA is work- ing to engage people who aren’t even on site. “We’re trying to simulcast our general- session room live on the web,” Coy said, “for people who can’t make it.” One potential sticking point is how to make the transmission “somewhat secure,” because while the ma- terial being presented is “not confidential,” Coy said, “it’s not something that people just want broadcast to anybody.” Also on tap: keynote
speaker Jason Dorsey, also known as “the Gen Y Guy,” who is part of NCMA’s ongoing mission to reach out to younger contract-management professionals. “We’ve seen a trend in the in- dustry of younger professionals,” Coy said, “so much so that last year we revamped our mem- bership categories and went as far as to sepa- rate them out and have a New Professional Member category.” She added: “We constantly get feedback that it’s the same old guys speak- ing. ... We don’t want to be that way, because we have so many young professionals.” n — Christopher Durso