Presenter Relations Committee Update
By Stephen Middleton and David Young
Postal Regulatory Commission…no that can’t be it. People’s Republic of China…that doesn’t sound right. Oh yeah, Presenter Relations Committee…that’s the one!
Don’t have enough acronyms in your life? Allow us to add one more. The Presenter Relations Committee (PRC) is the small band of outdoor professionals who have taken on the task to fill the presentation offerings portion of the annual AORE conference. This includes making sure that we have relevant topics, dynamic presenters, and a wide array of offerings for the diverse population of conference attendees.
In order for presentations to happen, we need dedicated members; like you, who read articles titled “PRC Committee Update” to step up to the plate and submit presentation ideas that you feel would benefit the industry. This may be you, someone that was “volun-told” to present by a supervisor, or a friend that is charting new waters in the realm of outdoor programming –whose story needs to be shared. No matter the person or situation, we need these ideas to be sent in during our annual “call for proposals” so that we can sort, sift, and situate the many presentation ideas into a schedule that best serves the needs of the members.
This year we were able to send out the proposal call two months earlier than previous years in hopes that we can have a completed schedule in the hands of the AORE at an earlier date. A completed schedule that is shared earlier gives presenters more time to prepare, conference goers more time to plan what sessions to attend, and relieves some stress of the conference planning team. We reached out to more members to help us review the presentation proposals. This gives us more eyes, more opinions, and a streamlined process to help us find the crème de la crème of presentations for your conference viewing pleasure.
Another goal we are working towards is a revamped evaluation form. We are all aware of the value that feedback has on the quality of a program and we intend to use this instrument to continually pursue the best presenters and topics for our members. This allows the audience to share feedback with the PRC, who can then forward information to the presenter(s) for meaningful, direct and timely feedback. We are working on how to incorporate the famous feedback sandwich, but we may have bitten off more than we can chew.
The PRC is proud of the work we have accomplished so far, and we hope that our work can translate into a better conference experience by having powerful presentations that are leading the charge in advocacy, innovation, and education. We would also like to thank the members who took time out of their day to give back to AORE by providing feedback for the submitted proposals. This work could not be done without you.
12