ERB’s 86th Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, was astounding! The energy was palpable, beginning with the Academic Leadership Summit: Best Practice Showcase which was exclusively sponsored by True Grits/Parker Uniforms. A game of Scrabble “Make Words, Make Friends” made for wonderful interaction in breaking the ice and getting to meet new faces. Sponsors held the high scoring letters, while first year attendees held onto all the vowels. The highest scoring word each day won gift cards to Starbucks for the whole team: a staple in the diets of our academic professionals! “Juxtaposition” was the first word to win! Maybe next year a team can put together “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and win double Starbucks! (Just a suggestion!)
Check out these Videos from 2013 ERB
The next day kicked off with a humorous and uplifting Keynote Speaker presentation by Mark Sanborn with “The Encore Effect”. What a buzz Mark created! Many attendees were looking to purchase his book after the session, which, by the way, can be purchased at Barnes and Noble or Amazon for about $13.00.
The intimate size of the ERB Conference lent itself to many engaging and fruitful conversations for our attendees and sponsors. Each break time offered a new opportunity to connect with a variety of sponsors right in the middle of all the coffee, tea, soda, water, and delectable goodies. Conversations were flowing as freely as the refreshments.
The piece de resistance was walking two blocks to the Stockyard on Thursday evening being led by a real cowboy and cowgirl! When the cowgirl cracked her whip, “yes” it was a real whip, we all fell in line quickly. Who would have thought that it would be so much fun being led like cattle to a stockyard for drinks, dinner, good music, and more time to connect?
During Thursday night’s dinner everyone had the opportunity to design a garden glove for the REAL School Gardens organization whose mission statement is “we create learning gardens that grow successful students.” Inspirational! “The REAL School Garden partner schools have seen a 12-15% increase in test scores.” What a great opportunity for sponsors to partner with!
Mark your calendars for October 28-30, 2014 to join ERB in Boston, MA! (Please note that the 2014 conference will begin on Tuesday and end on Thursday.)
Call for Proposals will go out in January, so put your thinking caps on to start creating interesting topics and ideas. All sponsors need to be partnered with an ERB member school. (We can assist with pairing you with a school.) Keep in mind that the proposal needs to be educational versus promotional.
If you are interested in pre-registering for the 87th Annual Conference, please contact Watson Jordan or Cyndi Madden at erb@hashtagresilience.com.
We look forward to seeing everyone again net year, October 28-30, 2014!