URMIA Matters

Higher Ed Risk Managers Emerge from Campus for the URMIA Annual Conference

September 01, 2021 Guest Host Julie Groves with guests Sue Liden and Jenny Whittington Season 2 Episode 17
URMIA Matters
Higher Ed Risk Managers Emerge from Campus for the URMIA Annual Conference
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

One of the 2021 Annual Conference Co-Chairs, Sue Liden of Pacific Lutheran University and URMIA Executive Director Jenny Whittington talk with guest host and Board Member Julie Groves about what to expect for the upcoming hybrid conference in October. Both in-person attendees and virtual attendees will experience unique opportunities to awesome professional development sessions and renewed networking. Visit www.urmia.org/ac2021 for more information.

Show Notes [member log-in required]

Connect with URMIA & URMIA with your network
-Share /Tag in Social Media @urmianetwork
-Not a member? Join ->www.urmia.org/join
-Email | contactus@urmia.org

Give URMIA Matters a boost:
-Give the podcast a 5 star rating
-Share the podcast - click that button!
-Follow on your podcast platform - don't miss an episode!

Thanks for listening to URMIA Matters!

Links
URMIA 52nd Annual Conference, Oct. 16-20, 2021 in Seattle

 Registration Options

 Hybrid Definition

 Conference Schedule Keynotes/General Sessions:
*The Future of Campus
 *Equity-Conscious Leadership: Evaluating Innovative Practices and Mitigating Risk
*Presidential Perspectives on Risk Management and the Future

 Jenny reviews these important safety protocols in place for the conference


Guests

Sue Liden, Director of Risk Services, Pacific Lutheran University

Jenny Whittington, CAE, URMIA's Executive Director

Guest Host

 Julie L. Groves, ARM, Director, Risk Services, Wake Forest University

TRANSCRIPT:
Julie: Hello everyone I'm Julie Groves the director of risk services at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem North Carolina and I'll be your host for URMIA Matters. Today we're going to talk about the upcoming annual conference in Seattle. Joining me are conference co-chair Sue Liden, who is the director of risk services at Pacific Lutheran University and Jenny Whittington, URMIA’s fabulous executive director. Welcome ladies. I'm very excited to hear all the scoop about our upcoming event. Before we get started, Sue, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself.

SUE: I have been in the risk management business for about 14 years here at Pacific Lutheran University and like many other Risk Managers, I kind of fell into it with no prior training. So URMIA has always been my resource to get me through. I'm a mom and a Grandma. I love the Pacific Northwest and anything to do with hiking and kayaking. 

Julie: And so I always like to ask people, so I guess you didn't dream of being a risk manager when you grew up?

Sue: No, was never a dream, never a thought.

Jenny: Hard to believe.

Sue: You know and I think it's just one of those things that comes naturally to us.

Jenny: You are living the dream Sue. 

Julie: Or we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s what I like to say. So and I'm not leaving Jenny out so if you all want to find out more about her go back and listen to our December 2nd 2020 podcast where she spends time in the hot scene I get to ask for the questions everybody wants to know the answers to. So let's let's move and talk about our annual conference which is going to be held October 16th through 20th in Seattle, Washington at the Sheraton Grand Seattle. And we'll go ahead and give a shout out to Sam Florio from Santa Clara University who is Sue’s conference co-coach but he couldn't be with us today. So the theme of this year's conference is emerging from the storm. Sue, tell us about that theme and how you came up with it and how that's going to be reflected in the conference.

Sue: Well back in early 2020 when Sam & I were talking about themes for the conference covid was just a glimmer it wasn't that big of a deal but we were talking about everything that was happening in higher education not just covid changes with Title IX, the black lives matter movement, declining enrollment, and a myriad of other issues and we thought well we have this perfect storm and together we're resilient. We're going to emerge from this storm! So that's how we chose the theme.


Julie: And so that'll be reflected and everything we do at the conference in his it sort of reflected in the sessions and things like that it'll be woven through the conference in a way?

Sue: It is woven through the conference. We have most of our keynote sessions are General Sessions in the morning are going to get us started on topics ranging from change that happened to covid and what we should accept moving forward, to DEI and then programming sessions that we have some that are educational - they are all educational -  but educational for Risk Managers as far as how to do your job and others how how we got through this how we're getting through covet and as we all know Risk Managers love to share resources and help wherever needed so it's a great group of people.

Julie:  Great. So, Jenny why don't you tell us a little bit about the different attendance options for the conference. 

Jenny: Absolutely Julie it's so great to be back on URMIA Matters it's been a bit of time I've been on the podcast and just wanted to thank you for being our host.

Julie:  Always happy to help.

Jenny:  you're so good at it - so thanks for helping us out. So the question is the different conference attendance options. So we are hosting a hybrid conference, in case the members, the listeners didn't know. So that means you can either attend in-person or you can attend virtually and we are accepting registration for both. You can sign up anytime online. So the in-person conference you know will begin pretty much on Saturday or Sunday in October and then the virtual attendants will pretty much be the morning program in Seattle broadcast live to the rest of our membership in the afternoon. So the virtual attendance is is an awesome option and what we did to try to promote higher education risk management on campus was offer you buy 1 registration and you actually get 9 discount codes. So you can invite 9 colleagues on your campus to join you. Each person has their own login, so they can pick whatever sessions they want to and they'll have access to those sessions for a certain period of time after the conference.

Julie: Great, so Sue, why don't you give us some of this year's Conference highlights. What are you most excited about?

Sue: I'm really excited about the General Sessions that we have in the morning that are going to be available for both in person and virtual. We're starting out with 3 keynote speakers who going to talk about some of the changes that occurred during our campus responses to covid and what changes we should embrace moving forward. Tuesday morning we're going to have a great presenter talk about Equity conscious leadership and going to focus on promoting ways to thank and engage and evaluate activities as Equity conscious Risk Managers. And then our final morning we've got a panel of presidents from different types and sizes of Institutions who are going to give us their perspective on higher ed emerging risks and the roles we play as risk managers moving forward. And then as usual, one of the things I always enjoy at the in-person - is that in the afternoons - we're going to have our networking opportunities in roundtable discussions. We always get so much - I always get it a lot out of those opportunities.


Julie:  yeah, they're always great for networking, meeting new people, finding contacts that can, you know, you can continue to bounce ideas off at long after you leave the conference. So you know, one of my favorite things all year is going to the annual conference so I am looking forward to being in Seattle. So Jenny will you let those of us who have attended past annual conferences know what things going to look different about the Seattle conference?


Jenny:  Well first I wanted to 2 highlight that if you like the color green this is going to be your year. Because green is the conference logo colors so there's definitely a theme for our promotional products. If you like Green in and you're not attending the conference, that you should totally sign up because this is your year to get some great green swag.  So it will look different. First of all we will be masked and there's a mandate state of Washington now here in Bloomington Indiana we've had a mask mandate re-implemented this summer. You will have the opportunity to remove your mask during meals that another thing that will be a little bit different is all of our meals we will have to go options so if you're not comfortable and you'd rather take your your entree up to your room maybe do a little work while you're in here we want to make everybody make sure everybody is comfortable. Another thing that will be a little different as we will be a little bit further apart and we're definitely being very mindful about space and I think we all appreciate that. I know just personally my personal space has this has definitely gotten a little bit larger like I just like the comfort zone of having a little extra space these days. So in the meeting rooms we will be a little bit more spread apart. We are definitely be mindful of that. We  will have antibacterial available, everything will be very individual, from an eating and drinking and planes and that pain that people love with an URMIA pen, that will be your pen all week do you want see so many pens from the hotel and pads what we give you at the beginning of the conference will be what you need to do to reuse for the entire week.

Julie:  That sounds great and I will say if you haven't been to an URMIA conference and you don't have an URMIA pen, you definitely need to sign up to, because these pens are the greatest. I have mine right now they're the greatest thing to eve. They come inblue and black I believe. 

Jenny: so yeah I wished the people could see us cuz Julie and Sue just held up their URMIA pens - true believers.  

Julie: I get several of them whenever I have an opportunity because they are great so if you don't have an URMIA pen, reach out to the URMIA home office and they will help you with that.

Jenny:  we can hook you up.

Julie: So if someone is attending a conference for the first time what should they expect?

Sue: They should expect to be greeted and welcomed with open arms even if it's physically distanced. We are all welcome and friendly bunch of people we always want to make everybody feel at home newcomers welcome in orientations if you look on the schedule for both the virtual and in person where you can get conference attendance tips you can sign up to have an annual conference engagement Ambassador. They are people who attended conferences before conferences before and they can assist you with navigating the conference answer any questions you have and one of the key things they can do is help you connect with other risk managers who may have similar risk experiences that you have same size institution or things like that so we're very welcoming. If you could tend it other conferences you might be surprised that we don't have an exhibit room where you can go but our Affiliates are there and you can meet with them and still talk to you but they're not going to try to sell you their product and ask you for your business card and so that they can call you afterwards. So as it's just a friendly group of people everybody is willing to help I've never seen a group so willing to share resources and ideas and there's never a dumb question and if your students on your campus have thought about doing something I guarantee you somebody else is already dealt with that and they are willing to share.


Julie:  That is true. While we're talking about coming to a conference in person at least, for those of us who are attending and coming to Seattle, tell us what we need to know before we come there. Obviously we need to wear some green clothing so that we can fit in.

Sue: No, we’re just to be at the Emerald City you know because of everything green. We do get some rain so you might want to pack a raincoat and umbrella. October you might not need it, you might, but it rains it's not going to be a deluge it's just a light mist. Locals don't even bother with umbrellas. Bring comfortable walking shoes to walk around our beautiful city. If you plan on doing any shopping bring a reusable bag with you because we are the “green city” so we don't use plastic bags and if you don't bring a bag with you, they'll be happy for a small fee to sell you a paper bag. But I recommend, we always. carry a reusable bag everywhere we go. Leave plenty of room in your suitcase when you packed so you that you can bring back all that swag and raffle items. And please, pleas,e please bring a donation for the URMIA raffle. Some of your institution swag, a shirt,  a coffee mug or whatever. And the money we raise from the raffle helps fund our scholarship opportunities for future conferences. The other thing I would ask, is that as risk manager’s and  in over the last year-and-a-half we've all learned - be flexible things will change so just be flexible with us we're doing everything we can to make sure this is a safe and enjoyable opportunity and where we've got for meeting all the time to keep everything in line with current regulations.


Julie: For those members who are attending virtually Jenny can you tell us if there are any special things they can expect.

Jenny: Well we are planning a very wonderful experience for our virtual attendees.  We want to make sure that they feel very included in the entire conference - it's one conference so we are going to do our best to make sure that they are included in as much conference activities as possible. We will have a special door prize that we offered throughout the conference and we will give out special prizes of the end of the conference. So that that is definitely one thing we will have a personal emcee. They'll be very entertaining and wonderful and really make the virtual attendees feel welcome and we will try to engage them in the in the real-time sessions as much as possible to make sure that they feel part of the whole conference experience. This is our first hybrid experience so just like Sue said please wait we do ask for a little patience as we navigate a pretty complicated situation but our intent is to make the virtual audience feel as inclusive as possible. 

Julie: And there's still plenty of time for people to register correct?

Jenny: Absolutely. There is there is no cap on the virtual registration and we are still welcoming people to be in-person registration so please sign up online or give us a call at the URMIA national office and we’d be happy to hook you up.

Julie: Wo while we're on the topic of an annual conferences why don't you eat share some of your favorite memories from past annual conferences. I'll go first. I loved the conference in Disney.  I mean  the keynote speakers were great. They really were. So you know there were people from the Disney Institute and it was just it was really really,  it was it was a great conference and they had a lot of great wisdom to share. So that should have given you all time to think of your answers while I was well the stalling for you.

Sue: I think one of my favorite was Elizabeth Smart when she was our keynote speaker in Salt Lake and shared her story of resilience, I think that’s a favorite one. Boston -  you just can't beat a police escort to the JFK library and it was an amazing experience to do that for me. URMIA had all the bells and whistles out for the for the 50th so that was great and I think I liked being on the battleship for our gala in San Diego. That was a special time being prior service just to be part of that we've had so many experiences.


Jenny: We’ve had so many great conference experiences. I mean obviously Disney anybody who knows me knows that make you just new fan so that was an entire year of just special memory after special memory.  I absolutely adored that but thinking back I mean back in Denver we got to see the Titanic exhibit that was pretty memorable speakers we've had over the years so many great ones the conference in Louisville getting to go to Churchill Downs and do the the simulated course racing at to be with URMIA and have experienced these these wonderful venues and so looking forward to Seattle. We had a site visit just a few weeks ago so they got to experience the market so if you haven't been to Seattle and you Market it is just incredible the weather there they are there the water I mean it is just an incredible. The weather, the air, the fodder. It’s an incredible City and get ready for some elevation I don't know if everybody knows the Seattle has a lot of Hills but you might start training now I may just you know do a little bit of strength training everyday cuz it it completely wears me out every time. We are still looking forward to having everybody with us and see how tall and we are putting extra thought and effort into all the details.  Michelle Smith our meetings person is doing a fabulous job thinking about every detail to make sure that we are safe and that we want everyone to have a wonderful experience whether there in-person or virtually we just can't wait to to be together as a community again.

Sue: And know that the annual conference committee is working hard to put together the best experience for both in-person and virtual to make sure that everybody has a good time but it's going to be different but it's going to be a great conference.

Julie: And it'll be great to see one another regardless of whether that's in person or virtually it's it's always good to be together with everyone and so I'm just thankful that we'll be able to have some form of that this year I mean last year last year's virtual conference was great so I know this year will be even better especially because there's the the ability to be there in person.

Julie:  So before we wrap up our chat today are there any last minute thoughts you'd like to share?

Jenny: Of course I forgot one really important thing Julie. So for the virtual attendees just like last year, we're doing the same as box. The box is filled with lots of great items conference swag to make you feel like you're part of the conference. We’ll send one to each paid registrant. Each paid registrant will receive a box in the mail to the address they gave us two registrations that is one box for each 10 registrants the boxes are great so that's because that's a great little perk.

Julie: So Sue anything else to add? 

Sue: Just that we are excited to welcome you to Seattle camp see everybody thanks to Sam, the conference committee and big thanks to Michelle and Jenny for keeping us on track and we're looking forward to a great conference in Seattle.

Julie: Well there is a wealth of information about the conference on our website so if you have any questions or you want information please be sure to visit the website and check all that out. And so I'd like to thank Sue & Jenny for chatting with me today and I look forward to emerging from the storm in October. I'm so excited about going and I can't wait to see everyone so I hope that you all make plans to join us. Sothank you ladies and the wraps another session of URMIA matters.

Jenny: Hey there. This is Jenny Whittington URMIA’s executive director. I am inviting all URMIA Matters listeners to take me up on a special offer related to our annual conference. So this offer is for anyone who wants to register for the Seattle in-person conference experience. The first 10 people to send me a DM on LinkedIn, I'll send them a code for $100 off the registration.