2021 – the year we continue to pivot! Just like you, we’ve had to go from survival to innovation as the pandemic continues to unfold. We listened to your feedback, brainstormed new ideas and reimagined what our Annual Conference should look like. The result? A completely new version incorporating new ideas and value for you!
We heard you: you don’t want to be logged on for hours and hours at a time. You want to receive quality content and specific opportunities to enhance your career. You also want to be connected with your GME community and participate in live, in-person sessions, as well as on-demand training on your own time. We considered all these inputs and feedback as we envisioned what we could build for you going forward. All this without losing our main purpose: to offer our GME community the opportunity to learn, engage and have a great time learning from each other.
The *new and improved* GMAC Annual Conference EXPERIENCE takes everything we love about the three days we spend together in June and spreads it out throughout six months to the end of 2021! We’ve put together a series of programming that we’ve scheduled throughout a set of “live” weeks and connected them in between with additional engagement and networking opportunities to continue the important conversations and connections with your peers to support you not just during the live schedule but along the way.
Our commitment to a strong and valuable program remains a key component of the event. We’re excited to present some very interesting general session speakers. We will have Guy Standing speaking about the corruption of capitalism; Dr. Claude Steele uncovering stereotype threat; Dr. Jamil Zaki teaching about how to build empathy along with other exciting speakers to stretch and challenge our thinking. The new EXPERIENCE includes speakers from business schools as well as experts from around the world. They have been tapped to address the critical issues you deal with every day: recruiting and what it looks like today and moving forward; mitigating bias in your admissions practices; creating diverse and inclusive programs; innovating your marketing practices; and more! Added to a roster of great speakers we’ve added some cool new session formats – speakers debating a topic, deep dives into critical topics, podcasts from experts, and even the opportunity to ask us… anything! Find out more about the program as we develop it here.
We have also added more value-adding professional development opportunities in the Annual Conference Experience PLUS. If you subscribe to the Annual Conference Experience PLUS you will have access to new sessions and speakers that you can access at your convenience, any time you want. Developed in the streams of Fundamentals (“Nuts and Bolts”), Diversity & Inclusion, Metamorphosis and Innovation, Reflection, and Resilience, you’ll have the opportunity to continue to learn from your peers and experts in the field on your own time. Check out more information about the subscription content here.
Of course, content is important… but we know that the community we build during the conference is the most important component of any event you attend. We’ve planned an ongoing series of discussion forums, mentoring opportunities, peer to peer learning sessions, and even a Peloton class and virtual wine tasting session! We are going to infuse as much connection and community building into the experience as we possibly can – and include some unexpected fun in the process!
Lastly, we continue to be sensitive to the ongoing challenges to school professional development budgets. For this reason, and because we are so excited about what we’re preparing for you, that we are offering “school-wide”, group registration options so you can bring your whole team to the party! Whether you take advantage of the conference yourself, or bring additional school participants with you, you’ll have a completely new conference experience from GMAC this year!
We can’t wait to introduce the Annual Conference Experience to you, and hope that you are as excited as we are. See you in June! (and July, and August, and September… well, you get it!)