Presidents Column

Presidents Column

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Very few of our more than 11,000 members ever see what really goes on "behind the scenes" at ABI. My hope is that our members will have a better understanding of the hard work by ABI's members and staff that makes ABI so successful. Their dedication is truly remarkable. I also hope that this will stimulate ideas for how members can "plug into" ABI's many opportunities for service.

I have just returned from ABI's 7th Annual New York City Bankruptcy Conference, which was quite successful, in large part due to the hard work of the conference co-chairs, Robert Rosenberg and Mitchell E. Drucker, and the help of Judicial Chair Hon. Stuart M. Bernstein. Michael Richman, our Immediate Past-President, also had a leading role in adding one of the most memorable parts of the conference. After lunch, everyone enjoyed a stimulating debate between Prof. Lynn LoPucki and three New York practitioners who challenged the professor's theories on bankruptcy venue shopping.

Planning just one conference is a substantial task in and of itself. Keeping ABI's 12 annual conferences on track requires an immense amount of work and coordination. When we have new conferences (as we do this year with the Mid-Atlantic and London programs), the amount of effort required is increased five to 10 times, since there is no history or knowledge base of experience for the conference.

ABI programs are developed by the planning committee for each conference, which includes recommending both topics and speakers as well as organizing the social events and the local tours that give us reasons to bring our spouses and families to enjoy some wonderful venues. The committee even raises the sponsorship money that makes our conferences the most cost-effective programs in the market.

Vice President-Education Neil Olack devotes countless hours each week to ensure that the conferences are where they need to be during all stages of the planning and execution cycles. His predecessor in that role, Judy Thompson, was instrumental in creating, standardizing and implementing the work plan that now keeps everyone on top of their responsibilities so that each conference is produced flawlessly.

To keep all of the conferences on track, the Vice President-Education relies on a strict schedule for conference co-chairs to be named, planning committees to be selected, topics and speakers to be confirmed, brochures to be created and mailed, materials to be submitted, audio/visual needs to be fulfilled and materials to be printed and delivered to the conference site and stuffed into the bags that we carry for the duration of the conference. After each conference concludes, the "debriefing" process begins to compile the attendees' comments, critiques and suggestions into an orderly format to be used by the next year's co-chairs when the planning process begins again, about three months after the conference concludes.

What makes this task the modern equivalent of "three-dimensional chess" is that the planning/execution/debriefing schedule is actively underway for as many as eight conferences at any one time. This is in addition to making site visits and negotiating hotel contracts for future conferences, some of which lie years ahead.

ABI's meetings department is led by four talented meeting planners: Jennifer Aversano, Jennifer Dugas, John Good and Jennifer Walker (a.k.a. "the J team"). Each meeting planner is assigned the primary responsibility for specific conferences that are staggered in a way to ease the load that each carries.

While at the conference, the meeting planners are responsible for everything from assuring that the bags are filled with the materials and other goodies, handling registration so it goes smoothly (including the many changes that always occur on site), keeping the meetings on schedule, moving signage between the meetings so everyone knows where to go, working with the hotel to assure that the meeting rooms and catering are what we expect, tracking CLE/CPE requirements and generally taking care of the other problems that are bound to arise. Their job is not done when the conference concludes, since they are also responsible for carefully reviewing the hotel's final billing to assure that all appropriate credits and adjustments are made.

When you next attend one of our many conferences, please take a moment to thank the conference co-chairs, planning committee members, speakers and ABI staff. If they can't respond to your needs and requests immediately, please understand how much they have on their plates and know that they will take care of your needs as quickly as they possibly can.

Journal Date: 
Friday, July 1, 2005