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On Thursday I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 Administrative Professionals Conference at WinMock in Bermuda Run, NC. WinMock is a beautiful old barn that has been renovated to hold conferences, weddings, etc. Our audience was made up of Administrative Professionals from WFU, WFU-Health Sciences, WSSU, UNC School of the Arts and Forsyth Technical Community College. We had approximately 260 attendees.

I have been on the Administrative Professionals Committee, which plans the conference, for 9 years. This year I entered registrant information into a spreadsheet and sent confirmations to WFU attendees. I also handled the deposits. I was the liaison for the attendees from WFU. I was also the photographer at the conference.

We had 3 great speakers!

Speaker 1 was Laura Hamilton

Program Description “It’s Time to Sharpen Your Ax”:
Why do weird things happen to me? What do you do with your life when it’s not going well? Where do you turn for answers? Who do I need to know? When is the perfect time to change? How do I get started?

Some key points in her presentation were:

Change our focus

You can’t get lost if you don’t know where you are going

We are never going to be who we used to be

Have a grateful heart

Always point toward the finish line

Speaker 2 was Dr. Kathy Stitts. She is Associate Provost for Lifelong Learning at Winston-Salem State University.

Program Description: “The TV Guide to Working with All Kinds of People Effectively”
From supervisors to subordinates…from faculty to students…from president to housekeeping…people play all kinds of roles – literally – – – Is your supervisor a reality show? Do you have a faculty member who is a drama series? Do students come into your office playing a comedy show? How do you deal with all these different roles effectively while not changing the channel all the time?

Some key points in her presentation were:

APN – Administrative Professional Network

It is important to self reflect

It is important to keep humor in the office – but not to be offensive

Speaker 3 was Lisa Withers

Program Description: “Do These Shoes Make Me Look Fat? The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback”
Feedback is an important key to life. It is the very thing that will keep you from walking around with a piece of spinach between your front teeth or trailing toilet paper stuck to your shoe all over Wal-Mart. Feedback is information about how we appear to others. This session highlights the art of giving it and getting it through some of life’s ordinary but hilarious moments!

Some key points in her presentation were:

Think before you speak

Respond appropriately to feedback given to you. Simply say thank you, even if you don’t agree.

Feedback is information about how other people perceive us – can’t be wrong

If you’d like to take a look at the pictures I took, they are on a Flickr site: