Connected Thinking Blog - NACHRI Conferences

Greener Meetings

To reduce the conference's environmental footprint we have significantly reduced the amount of paper used to generate presenter materials and handouts, added recycling bins, reduce bottled water usage by adding more water coolers throughout the meeting space. We hope you will help us do our part by using the appropriate trash and/or recycling bins during the meeting.

Take A Deeper Dive

This year's conference offers more in-dept and hands-on workshops then every before. Plan to arrive early to take advantage of the pre-conference workshops: (1) Community Health Needs Assessment and (2) Models for Quality Improvement: Advancing Transformation in Children's Hospitals schedule to start on Sun., Mar. 13 at 8:00 a.m. A separate registration is required.

Attendees can also take advanatge of the exciting workshops planned within the conference and included with your conference registration. These highly interactive and extended sessions attendees can explore a wide-range of challenges facing children's hospitals today, some of these session include but are not limited to:

Mon., Mar. 14
1:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Building and Sustaining a Children's Hospital corporate alliance Program (Part I and II)
Philips McCarty

Tues., Mar. 15
9:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Philanthropy in Children's Hospitals: Lessons Learned and Best Practices From the Field (Part I and II)
Bruce W. Flessner

9:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
A Practical Approach to Developing Evaluation Strategies that Create Effective Connections
Carolyn C. Fowler,PhD, MPH

More.

Opening Plenary Session

Monday, March 14
8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

 

 

Benjamin S. Carson, SR., MD
Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD

As the Keynote speaker for the 2011 Creating Connections Conference, Dr. Carson will challenge attendees to "Think Big" and how you can unleash your potential for excellence starting today. Join us at  early for continental breakfast

 

Cost Cutting Tips: The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Yes, it's true. The early bird does get the worm, we mean the best savings. Registering for the conference prior to Jan. 21 saved conference attendees $125 off the regular registration rate. Likewise, booking hotel accommodations prior to Feb. 17 guaranteed them the discounted room rate of $229 per night. It's not too late make your hotel reservations today.

Booking your flight at least 30 days early is one of the best ways to find a great deal. There are a lot of websites that offer great deals and reasonable flights, but take the time to shop them all. Association Travel Concepts(ATC) has been selected as the official travel agency for the NACHRI 2011 Creating Connections Conference. ATC has negotiated discounts with American Airlines and United Airlines, as well as with Hertz Rentals.ATC staff is available to help you with reservations Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. ET.

 

Sample Justification Letter

(Date)
Dear (supervisor’s name),

I would like to attend the (select conference: NACHRI Creating Connections Conference or NACHRI Annual Leadership Conference), (insert date) premier events for children’s hospital professional. The conference will enable me to attend a number of education sessions that are directly applicable to my work and will allow me to network with a variety of children’s hospital experts and colleague from across the country. Many of the presentations are tailored to the (your profession) professional and give information on how to (list benefits to your responsibilities). I am seeking sponsorship for the registration fee, travel expenses to the conference, and living expenses during the conference. A detailed cost breakdown is included below.

After reviewing the conference program, I have identified a number of education sessions which will allow me to gain knowledge and understanding about how we can improve our processes. The presentations are facilitated by both children’s hospital colleagues and industry experts who have faced similar challenges. I chose each of these presentations because it is directly related to an issue we are dealing with currently. Getting the information in a conference format will greatly reduce the research time and costs the (your hospital’s name) would normally incur in researching the topics. Incidentally, I have only listed some of the sessions that I will attend. Including them all would make this memo much too long.

(You will need to insert the session descriptions which most apply to your responsibilities.)
[The numbers in brackets below will need to be adjusted to reflect the current pricing. All registration fees are listed on our website. The travel costs vary as well and should be changed to reflect your costs.] 
The full price conference fee is ($xxxx), but can be reduced $125 by registering before the early bird.
(You will need to insert your travel cost numbers in here)

Here is the breakdown of conference costs:
Roundtrip Airfare: ($xxxx)
Transportation: ($xxxx)
Hotel: ($xxxx)
Meals: ($xxxx)
Conference Fee: ($xxxx)
The total costs associated with attending this conference are: ($xxxx).

The opportunity for me to develop better contacts and gain knowledge in specific areas of (your profession) makes my attendance at NACHRI’s conference a wise investment, which will yield rich dividends for (name of your organization).

Sincerely,
(your name here)

Gaining Support For Your Future

Many travel budgets and training budgets have been slashed, and some hospitals are experiencing severe financial problems, which means that regardless of the merits of a conference, you’ll probably need to justify the expense. So here are some things you might want to consider:

• Focus on what you will specifically bring back to the hospital as return for the investment
• Offer to prepare and deliver a short presentation and Q&A to your colleagues to share what you learned. That way others in your hospital will get the benefits of your attendance, too
• Share the learning guide and speaker handouts with your colleagues. As an attendee, you have unlimited access to materials posted by speakers
• If you are working to obtain or maintain a designation, remind your supervisor that this is a great way to earn continuing education credits
• Be ready with a plan that shows who will cover for you while you are attending the conference
• Be sure to check out the registration page where all the various rates are listed. Be sure to register by the early bird date to receive the lower rate

Fresh Ideas, Leading Experts and Smart Solutions

Choose the right path. This year's conference features seven Learning Tracks with more than 70 educational sessions, 50 poster presentations, 20 IMPACT presentations and 2 pre-conference workshops addressing the challenges facing children's hospital today. Network with over 500 children hospitals professionals who are focused on developing solutions that will drive the success of children's hospitals over the next decade.

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