Your Input Needed on 2026 Conference Agendas

Annual Meeting and Conference

Your Input Needed on 2026 Conference Agendas

By Jeremy Wilson, EVP/COO and North American Director

As I said in the last couple of articles, I really appreciated the engagement that attendees brought to the Annual Meeting last month. And hats off to those of you who took the time to fill out the post conference survey to tell us in more detail how we did.

The overall feedback was positive on the approach we took as far as the focus on education and the Tuesday deep dive on AI during the expert panel discussion and the “Beer and Bull” roundtable session. The survey results are really valuable now, because we’re already at the point where we need to start making some decisions on how to approach the agenda for the upcoming Mid-Year Meeting in June … six months will fly by in a hurry!

First thought, which goes along with the survey results, is that we need to swing the pendulum back a bit from an 80-20 education to working group ratio to closer to 50-50. There’s also support for more roundtable discussions, which people thought were valuable.

But other survey feedback came back pretty mixed. There was wide variance on the topic of AI … some folks couldn’t get enough of how it will impact the value chain overall and how companies should approach integration; others wanted to turn off the firehose and get to other things. Some folks wanted more time for discussions, some wanted topic options beyond AI. Yet some others wanted smaller groups than the 10 or so we had per table. Finally, some suggested we more deliberately mix the tables up to ensure that as many industry segments as possible would be represented.

The good news is that there’s value to the roundtable discussions as structured … so much so that they garnered most of the attention on the survey. Now, what’s the best way to improve?

To this end I could use your feedback. I’m even kicking around creating a content advisory group that would meet virtually one time to answer questions and share ideas with the Conference Committee this winter about our approach to the Mid-Year Meeting agenda.

So, I’d like you to reach out to me for a couple of reasons. First, if we could interest you in joining a one-time agenda planning call, that would be a big help. And in the meantime, I’d like to have some one-on-one conversations about the approach to the agenda and roundtable program with those of you who were in attendance at the Annual Meeting.

Or if you prefer, send me a note with some topics you would like to see added, and any speakers you know of that would deliver great content.

We need your input! The goal of our organization as a whole, and the conferences in particular, is to bring value to you, our members. We always work hard to bring you the learning and growth opportunities you need to succeed, and with your input we have a better chance of hitting the target for everyone who attends.

Thank you for all you do, and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to every one of you! Let’s make 2026 conferences the benchmarks for excellence in the years to come.