Kim Simpson:
Welcome to NASW Social Work Talks. The National Association of Social Workers is one of the largest membership organizations of professional social workers in the world. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies. With our mission in mind, the purpose of NASW Social Work Talks is to inform, educate, and inspire. We encourage you to learn more about NASW by visiting www.socialworkers.org, and we thank you for joining us for this episode of NASW Social Work Talks.
I'm Kim Simpson with NASW. In this episode of NASW Social Work Talks, we take another comprehensive look at the 2018 NASW National Conference which is right around the corner, June 20th through the 23rd at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. The 2018 National Conference is the ultimate gathering of the social work profession. More than 2000 social workers and other helping professionals will gather for four days of unparalleled opportunities for professional development, continuing education, networking, and thought-provoking conversations tackling the most pressing issues facing the social work profession worldwide.
I'm so pleased to have two guests back on the show for another conversation. They're the backbone of the team that is responsible for planning the 2018 National Conference. Raffaele Vitelli, NASW's Director of Professional and Workforce Development, and Richard Loomis, NASW's Manager of Conference and Event Planning. Thanks so much for joining us, gentlemen.
Raffaele Vitelli
Thank you for having us, Kim.
Kim Simpson:
So the 2018 National Conference is just a few weeks away. What can folks expect when they arrive on day one, June 20th? I see pre-conference workshops, keynote presenters, and an opening reception among the highlights.
Richard Loomis:
Thanks, Kim. Yes indeed, the opening session of the conference on Wednesday, June 20th, is going to be a very busy day. We actually start first thing in the morning with an advocacy program that'll be held on Capitol Hill. It's a voter engagement-focused event, teach-in type of event. That will be followed by eight pre-conference workshops. Among those will be sessions on ethics, on self-care, private practice, and there'll be as said, choices from eight different topics. That will lead into the formal kick-off of the conference, which will be at 3:00, and that will involve both remarks from our leadership, presentation by a spoken word poet Kane Smego, and then our opening keynote presentation from Van Jones, journalist and commentator on CNN.
Kim Simpson:
What can you tell me at this point about the offerings in terms of the workshops and break-out sessions? It looks like a pretty comprehensive set of break-outs.
Raffaele Vitelli:
Yes indeed, Kim. Thank you. In fact, this is the case. Setting aside the keynotes and the plenary sessions, we do have over 100 break-out sessions. Each session is 90 minutes long so there are plenty of opportunities for attendees to really, really dive deep into several topics. We had to basically skim over 500 applications for presentations for content for the conference, so we were able to really select what looked like top-notch content. It covers all topics, it really spans across the broad spectrum of social work as a profession, and they are all going to count for continuing education credits. It's like many events this size, the individuals will have badges with a barcode on them, and they will be scanned at the entrance of each of these break-outs and that scanning basically will ensure that they get credit for attending the session when the CE certificate comes out at the end.
Kim Simpson:
So it sounds like participants can earn up to 25.5 continuing education credits. What kinds of topics? Scanning the list of offerings, it looks like you can learn about aging and just the entire gamut of topics that social workers would be interested in.
Raffaele Vitelli:
That is correct. 25.5 is an accurate number, is where we are at right now. There's always changes at the last minute, but it looks like it's going to be the total number of CEs, assuming that a participant attends the maximum amount of sessions that are not happening at the same time, clearly. But yes, there will be break-out sessions that cover ethics, clinical social work, addictions, school social work, really anything you can think of, there will be several break-outs that cover that topic at different levels. As I said, because all the sessions are 90 minutes long we really are able to, for each of the sessions, really dive deeply into that topic and ensure that it's properly covered. Of course there is the opportunity to ask questions, which is always very thought-provoking and engaging for the audience. We'll have break-out sessions in the morning and in the afternoon of each day, except for Wednesday of course. So there will be break-out sessions in the morning of Thursday and the afternoon on Thursday as well as Friday and Saturday. So there'll be plenty of opportunities to make sure that you really get to attend those sessions that you deem are important for your job.
Kim Simpson:
And again, it's first come, first serve, so our participants can scan the agenda, choose the topics for the break-outs that they want to participate in, and then you show up.
Richard Loomis:
That's correct. It is what's referred to as open seating. You make your decision as to which break-out session you want to attend and participate in, and as Raffaele mentioned the calendar, the schedule break-outs, reflect the broad spectrum of social work, from advocacy to mental health to school social work, aging. It's really going to be a wide variety, quite a menu. As I said, it's open seating. You go in, first come, first serve. Once the room reaches capacity, then you'll have to move on to others.
Raffaele Vitelli:
Yes, there will be a program in the bag that each registrants receives at check-in, but also they will be able to download the event app, our NASW Conference app that also gives a full schedule of events that are happening, and so allows them to navigate which ones they want to choose.
Kim Simpson:
That's an important part of Conference, and our participants can download the app prior to Conference, prior to arriving. And that app will include information about all of the keynote presentations. We're heavy on wonderful content for the break-out sessions but we also have some wonderful content during the actual keynote presentation and the plenaries. Can we talk about how things have shaped up for this conference in terms of the content that folks can expect to hear from, from some nationally-renowned speakers and plenary speakers?
Richard Loomis:
Indeed, both nationally and internationally renowned speakers. We mentioned earlier the opening keynote will be delivered by Van Jones, author and contributor on CNN, and Kane Smego, a nationally-acclaimed spoken word poet from California. We'll also have Fredi Lajvardi from Arizona who is quite an inspirational speaker and will talk about how he as an educator has worked with disadvantaged children. And then the wrap-up on Saturday will be best-selling author and blogger Gretchen Rubin. So we are quite pleased with the array and diversity that we have amongst the keynote speakers.
Kim Simpson:
One other way that our participants can glean additional content is to visit the exhibit hall in which we'll have a wide array of different organizations exhibiting. Can you tell us about who we can expect to meet at Conference?
Richard Loomis:
Indeed. It'll be a robust exhibit hall. Once again, with a good diversity of exhibitors. There'll be academic and educational programs with a variety of schools of social work exhibiting. There'll be advocacy organizations, government agencies, different healthcare services, treatment centers. So indeed, it's going to be quite an opportunity to see some of the best offerings being made today.
Kim Simpson:
What else can folks expect throughout the conference in terms of special events?
Raffaele Vitelli:
Well, we do have several events that are meant to, again, enrich the participants' experience and also lighten up the mood a little bit as well. We do have returning events. Like for instance, we will host the Night at the Awards Gala event for NASW Foundation, where national awards will be given. But also it's an opportunity to meet with and network with colleagues and thought leaders within the field. We'll have the film festival like we did in prior years. We'll host three different films and that's part of your registration fee, so there's no additional dues for that one, additional fees for that one. It's been quite popular. Also, we'll have new events, events that we haven't done before but we're excited about. For instance, we will have a dance reception after the film festival on Thursday. We're not sure about what we're going to call that but we like the idea of calling it NASW Club or something of that nature. There will be music, there will be light refreshments served, but mostly it will be an opportunity to just relax a little bit for a couple of hours and dance your way into Friday morning.
Kim Simpson:
So we need to bring our dance shoes?
Raffaele Vitelli
Absolutely, yes. And also very important, for the first time this year we are hosting a career development opportunities. Through the gracious offerings and work of the Consortium for Career Development in Social Work Education, which is a consortium of schools of social work, we will be able to offer two workshops which will happen around lunchtime on Thursday and Friday that will focus on career development, as well as one-on-one coaching sessions that will happen throughout the conference at specific times. People can reserve their spot for those one-on-one coaching sessions. We're excited about those, and I want to take a moment to thank the five schools that are part of the consortium that will be basically providing these services at the conference. They are the University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Illinois at Urbana, and University of Chicago. We are really excited about these initiatives because again, it's the first time we're doing that but we feel like it's an important part of someone's career development, the opportunity to speak with experts about simple things like how to write your resume, how to negotiate for better salaries, how to maintain and curate your LinkedIn profile. So we're looking forward to those events as well.
Kim Simpson:
So the opportunities for learning and networking are virtually limitless in terms of ... I mean, there's a little bit of something for everybody.
Richard Loomis:
Indeed, and I think that is also one of the major motivators as to why people do go to conferences, is that ability and that opportunity for networking. That really underlies a lot of the conference offerings, is to maximize the opportunity for people because it's a national conference. It's an international conference, there are eight other countries outside of the United States that will have representation at the conference. So that opportunity to build your own network through meeting with others. Raffaele mentioned the film festival and we talked about CEs, and an important point to note is that you can also earn two CEs by attending and participating in the film festival.
Kim Simpson:
So for our listeners who are intrigued and perhaps have not visited the NASW website or registered, folks can still register. What's the process, where can they get more information, and how long can they register?
Richard Loomis:
We'll take registration right up to the conference itself, so right up through June 20th. But in advance of that, people are encouraged to visit the NASW website, socialworkers.org. Click on "events", and then you'll see a link for the 2018 NASW National Conference and that will just take you right through a very easy, very user-friendly registration process.
Kim Simpson:
And of course there is a virtual option for those who can't be in Washington, DC for this year's event. Tell us about that. What's being offered, the cost, and how can folks register?
Raffaele Vitelli:
Yes, we do recognize that it is expensive for a lot of folks to not only reserve your spot in the conference but also having to make travel arrangements and come all the way to DC. So we want to still try to give as many people as possible an opportunity to join in in some of the most important content that's going to be shared. So we will be broadcasting live all the keynotes, the plenaries, and probably between 10 and 15 of the break-out sessions so that people that cannot make it to the conference for a lot of different reasons can still try to join remotely and at least take in the very important content that's going to be shared. We don't have a price point yet at this point but clearly it's going to be a much lower price than the actual registration fees for the conference. We did the same thing in 2016 and it was very successful, and so we'll use the same platform. We got only good feedback from the users of the platform in terms of ease of registration and ease of logging in and attending the sessions remotely. We're very confident that the technology partner that we are partnering with is going to be able to, again, support and provide this fully. The last thing I wanted to mention about that is that as an added bonus, individuals that will not be able to attend even those ... If they register for the remote live online sessions, but they cannot attend them for whatever reason, they will also be given access to the recordings of those sessions afterwards. So even if you don't get to attend the live session as it happens, you can still watch it afterwards. So there is the added bonus of making sure that once you're registered, eventually you're going to get the opportunity to see that important session.
Kim Simpson:
So there's some exciting opportunities for folks to participate whether they're here in Washington or watching from their home or office. Anything else that comes to mind that you'd like to add?
Raffaele Vitelli
Yes, Kim. I want to add one more thing, that it's really hard to describe simply. Is that just the energy at the event is incredible. This is the most common feedback we receive. "I just was so reenergized by attending the event, so ready to go." It really feels like we've done our job even just by looking at people around on the conference and see how they're smiling and they're just feeling energized. So if anything else, come for the rejuvenating energy you're going to get out of it.
Richard Loomis:
We encourage all of our listeners to visit the website and look at the agenda and follow through on registration.
Kim Simpson:
Absolutely. I've enjoyed the previous conferences that I've attended and I'm really looking forward to this one. Raffaele, Richard, thanks so much for joining us.
Raffaele Vitelli
Thank you, Kim.
Richard Loomis:
Thank you, Kim.
Kim Simpson:
Until next time. [music fades in] You have been listening to NASW Social Work Talks, a production of the National Association of Social Workers. We encourage you to visit NASW's website for more information about our efforts to enhance the professional growth and development of our members to create and maintain professional standards and to advance sound social policies. You can learn more at www.socialworkers.org, and don't forget to subscribe to NASW Social Work Talks wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for joining us. We look forward to seeing you next episode.