By Dr. Randall Cuthbert
Associate Professor, Emergency & Disaster Management at American Public University
Greetings from beautiful Las Vegas, where I am attending the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) annual conference. The admitted weakness of online learning is the lack of ability to network in person with fellow students, faculty, and industry professionals, so attendance at conferences such as this one is highly recommended as part of your education.
Consider this partial list of speakers and presenters that my students and I have had access to this week:
- The Director of the National Hurricane Center
- A first-on-the-ground Relief Coordinator for the Fukushima earthquake
- The Deputy Administrator of FEMA and the Acting Director of the FEMA Preparedness Division
- The NOAA Weather Service
- The Department of Health & Human Services
The list goes on. In sum, this is the greatest collection of experts and high-ranking officials that occurs in our career field. They all gather for three days once a year, to answer questions, provide networking opportunities beyond compare, and enable attendees to understand in great detail the latest products and services available in the field.
[Related: Making the Most of Social Media at a Conference]
Conferences get a bad rap for being little more than a chance to get away from the office, but that perspective entirely misses the point. With a little imagination and some perseverance, a conference can become a career enabler that’s not available from any other venue.
At the opening reception meet-and-greet, I met representatives from another university that offers degree programs in emergency management much like American Public University. I was startled that they all seemed to know me; upon closer examination of their nametags, I realized that they were all former students of mine. How cool is that?
I jokingly queried them about how much of my material they’d hijacked to build their own program, but I really didn’t care what the answer was. Corporate espionage? Plagiarism? NO! Sharing of best practices for the good of the community!
When an educator comes to our booth, I freely share everything we’re doing. In the end, what we all want is an educated populace that’s dedicated to the good that the career field can accomplish.
You can visualize your conference attendance in much the same way. Online learning is an awesome tool that will get you to your degree. Through conference attendance, you can add to your education in ways that benefit you, your career, and the good that your career field does for our society.
Onward and upward!
About the Author: Dr. Randall Cuthbert is an Associate Professor of Emergency & Disaster Management. He welcomes comments and suggestions for topics to explore in this forum. He can be reached at randall.cuthbert@mycampus.apus.edu
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