In just a few short days, the HAPS 2013 Annual Conference will begin. Until I became active in HAPS leadership, I was blissfully unaware of all of the prep required months and years before the conference. Somehow everything magically fell into place each May, and I had a fantastic time at our annual event.
I know better now. The annual conference would not come to be without conference organizers (HAPS members who volunteer to host the conference), their volunteers, and our wonderful management company, ASG. ASG employees Shanan and Robin do much of the ‘heavy lifting’ concerning scheduling a venue, arranging hospitality contracts, working with our vendors and exhibitors, handling registration, and ensuring all of the details fall into place. If you are coming to the conference, please take time out to thank them both for all of their hard work – they are irreplaceable! Our new Executive Director Peter has been phenomenal, working with ASG to make sure all goes smoothly at the meeting, and setting us up with our first HAPS meeting app. Be sure to go to Google Play or iTunes and download the HAPS 2013 app for the meeting!
Our current HAPS president, Dee, has been working tirelessly with all of these individuals to make sure the annual conference goes smoothly. Since her first month as president, she has been in contact with all of the above individuals to make sure that all aspects of conference planning were in place. Dee was (and is) the ‘go to’ person whenever any of the above individuals had a question or an unresolved issue concerning the conference.
Why all the fuss? Well, in addition to being a fabulous social and intellectual experience, the annual conference is the major event that keeps HAPS afloat. It is through the funds received from the conference that HAPS continues to exist and thrive. No annual conference – no HAPS. Simple as that.
So when I begin my tenure as HAPS president, I hope to be as successful as Dee was with the conference organization. I am looking forward to working with the conference chairs for our 2014 annual conference. In the meantime, I hope to see all of you in Las Vegas beginning this weekend!