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Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Administrative Professionals Conference at Bridger Field House. Our audience was made up of Administrative Professionals from WFU, WFU-Health Sciences, WSSU, UNC School of the Arts and Forsyth Technical Community College. The majority of the audience was female, but there were 3 males at the conference yesterday! We had 206 attendees, which was down a bit from last year due to the economic hardships.

I have been on the Administrative Professionals Committee for 6 years. This year I updated and added new pages to our web site: http://groups.wfu.edu/adminprof/ I was also on the registration sub-committee.

We had 3 great speakers!

Speaker 1 was Cher Holton, her topic was “Living at the Speed of Life, Staying in Control in a World Gone Bonkers”! She presented some really great ideas on how to cope with stress, how to appreciate your self and others, facing fear and growing and building a network. She was a very dynamic and exciting speaker and kept everyone engaged!

Speaker 2 was Denise Ryan, her topic was “Motivation by Chocolate”! We each took a test and based on the test results, we split up into 4 groups. What type of chocolate maker are you?

Group 1 was Forrest Mars – commander, values getting the job done, decisive risk taker, good at delegating work to others, etc. There were only 5 Administrative Professionals in this group!

Group 2 was Mrs. Fields – entertainer, values enjoyment and helping others with the same, full of ideas and impulsive in trying them, wants to work to be fun for everyone, talkative and open about self, etc. This was the largest group!

Group 3 was Milton Hershey – harmonizer, values acceptance and stability in circumstances, slow with big decisions, dislikes change, builds networks of friends to help do work, good listener, easy going, friendly, etc.

Group 4 was Henri Nestle – assessor, values accuracy in details, plans thoroughly before deciding to act, introverted, highly organized, cautious, logical, thrifty approach, etc. For those that know me well, you probably know I was in this group!
We also had a chocolate tasting!

Speaker 3 was Sheri Lynch from the nationally syndicated radio show Bob & Sheri, based in Charlotte – 107.9 FM – The Link. Her topic was; “In the life of an administrative professional, it’s bad enough that you’re at the center of everything. For most women, that “center of everything” is true at home as well with a dizzying number of responsibilities and demands”. Sheri spoke about her life as a radio host and Mother of two girls.

I think this was one of our best conferences! The speakers and food were great! River Birch and Midtown Café catered our lunch! Chick-fil-A (on Peacehaven) donated breakfast, door prizes and 31 table center pieces! The Chick-fil-A cow was also present! Members of our committee collected enough door prizes that each attendee went home with one door prize! A great success!!