Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/docia-shares-a-story-challenges-of-planning-conferences/5013630/
henever I listen to people talking about their experiences as meeting and conference planners, I find myself recalling an incident I had early on in my career. It was my first experience as program chairman (it wasn't chair, chairperson, or chairwoman in the late 1940s) for the Southern California Nursery School Association, now the Southern California Association for the Education of Young Children and an affiliate of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.We were meeting on the third floor of the old California Teachers Association Building and there were no elevators. The speaker was a well-known parent educator and supporter of parent cooperative nursery schools. She was to meet me at 7 pm but had not arrived by 7:30 and I was beginning to feel nervous. I asked the president to keep the meeting going while I ran down the stairs to see if I could see any sign of the speaker . . . no sign. I ran up the stairs to the second floor and tried the phone number she had given me . . . no answer. I ran up the stairs to the third floor and told the president to carry on and then ...