IASA 2011: Attendees Urged to Energize Careers

Welcome to the 83^rd annual IASA Educational Conference & Business Show in Nashville!

Get ready to Energize Your Career. It takes a lot of energy just to keep up with the pack these days, and it takes even more energy if you want to stay ahead.  It is up to each of us—individually and collectively—to channel our energy productively to help ensure the right outcomes for ourselves, our families, and our companies.

That's what this year's IASA Annual Conference theme, Energize Your Career, is all about. It's about getting everyone to look within and to channel your energy toward personal development, which in turn benefits you, your family, and your company.

And, what better partner to help Energize Your Career than IASA?  

The 2011 IASA Annual Education Conference & Business Show can be the catalyst for you to not only Energize Your Career, but also to make a profound change to the course of your career that will benefit you once this event is over and for years to come. You have obviously made a commitment to your career by attending this conference and since you are here I hope you will take additional steps to get involved. The key tenets of this opportunity to Energize Your Career with IASA are Education, Networking, and Volunteerism.

The IASA Annual Educational Conference & Business Show provides a multitude of educational opportunities. With over 90 technical sessions to help educate you on important and timely topics in your field, and 20 vendor connect tours to help focus in on specific areas within the exhibit hall, you will have plenty of choices to make.  Further, this year's keynote speakers are varied in terms of focus, and help bring thought-provoking and game-changing philosophies directly to you.  And if that's not enough, we've added a Chief Operating Officer Roundtable which will enable more direct connections between peer groups, and a Conference Buzz edition of IASA's popular Industry Pulse, which will let you know what other conference attendees are saying each day during the event. 

Make sure you dive in and immerse yourself in the variety of educational opportunities that are right here at your fingertips this week.

While networking is certainly a key to a successful conference, it is absolutely critical to Energizing Your Career. You simply must consider networking a vital component in your success and in that of your company. 

When you attend IASA's local chapter events, as well as the IASA annual conference and Executive EDGE Conference events, you will find them packed with individuals just like you who have positive stories about how meeting with peers and industry solution providers at IASA events has changed the course of their careers or companies. 

Networking with other IASA participants can impart key knowledge that will change the potential outcome of failing projects, save you perhaps tens of thousands of dollars, and have a host of other benefits.

Most of us face new challenges at work every day as we embark on new projects, mergers and acquisitions, audits, or other unique issues.  I have made so many great friends over the years at IASA conferences and events, I can guarantee you that I know someone that has “been there and done that” before.  

I can't count how many times I've been able to leverage my volunteerism and networking at IASA for the success of a project I was working on just by picking up the phone and asking.  I've also returned the favor many times over as well.  These intangible benefits not only help Energize Your Career, but help each of our companies as well.

Create your own energy; make it a point to sit and chat with different attendees each morning during breakfast, or at any of our other functions.  Take an interest in the person you are meeting and conversely, talk about your company role and issues you face. 

The same holds true when you are talking with industry solution providers in the exhibit hall.  Many of these people played various roles in insurance companies, and the individual you are speaking to may even have solved the specific problem you are facing in a previous “life” during his or her career.  

The IASA Annual Educational Conference & Business Show houses an incalculable amount of knowledge and experience under one roof for just about one week.  Go out there and leverage this opportunity to Energize Your Career by tapping that knowledge, opening up, and talking with your peers.

Go ahead and seize the opportunity to Energize Your Career by having a great conference.