Richard's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘conferences’

Therap will be hosting its 2012 Regional Conference in New Mexico on May 30-31, 2012.

The conference will again be at the Holiday Inn Jefferson St in Albuquerque.

Check the website in coming months for more information on this and other conferences.

Next year we are planning something like 25 different Therap conferences across the country. In addition to the National Conference in Feburary, this includes Regional Conferences and Side-by-Side Conferences with College of Direct Support.

There are a number of issues which go into choosing times and locations for conferences.  I am very conscious of keeping the cost of the hotels and airfare as low as possible. So for example the Florida Conference is in December in Orlando because the hotel said it was the lowest travel week of the year to Orlando and we were able to get a very low sleeping room rate for people. Apparently no school children travel to Disney halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We also try to have only one or two Therap conferences the same week. There is a limit on Therap team members who can run sessions at the conferences. There is one week this year where we have conference in Oregon, Nebraska and New York the same week. We have the conference sessions covered, but we try and avoid three conferences the same time.

One issue in planning which has occurred recently is planning around holidays.  How far from holidays can a conference be run. For example we ran the New Mexico conference the Wednesday and Thursday after Memorial Day. That seems ok – as people were able to use the Tuesday to drive if needed.

I was just informed that the tentative date for the North Dakota conference was the day after Fathers Day and I will try and switch it to Tuesday and Wednesday so people don’t have to leave their families on the holiday.

We have tried to avoid the Thursday before Labor Day – but have felt a Tuesday and Wednesday conference the week before Labor Day would be ok.

Holidays are a time to spend with families for both patriotic and religious reasons. As we are running more conferences we are trying to be aware of holidays and customs around the country.

There are parts of the country where we would want people to have the day to spend with their family when hunting season begins. But for example just in looking at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website there is not just one website. There are seasons for bear, deer, pheasant, grouse and more – and in fact even a archery season for deer.

I know that sometimes when scheduling conference 6-12 months in advance we make a mistake. I mistakenly put our Oregon conference on Veteran’s Day this year. When signing up a conference and asking for the 2nd Wednesday and Thursday of a month -I didn’t focus on the specific number and Veteran’s Day is always November 11. As opposed to Thanksgiving which changes the date but is always the 4th Thursday of November.  I apologize for this scheduling and hope to avoid this mistake in the future.

If people have other thoughts and questions on how and why our conferences are scheduled when they are – I would be happy to discuss.

I just got back from the annual NYSRA conference in Albany, NY.

It was nice to see so many agencies I have talked with over the years who are now up and running with Therap. It was particularly nice in that I was able to attend the conference with my father.

I used to attend more of the New York conferences including NYSARC, NYSACRA and NYSRA. Kevin Lightle generally attends those conference for Therap now – but he was somewhere else today so I got to attend.

Years ago the questions were often about res hab and day hab and isp and msc plans. Now that Therap has so much of those issues solved and incorporated in the system, I was getting questions about 1115 which is not even fully out yet from OPWDD.

Each conference we run has different characteristics. This is the second conference we are running in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We are again running in conjunction with College of Direct Support.

One interesting difference between the Tennessee conference and many other conferences is the number of different states that we have attendees from. At the recent conference in Buffalo, NY we only had users from New York State.   For the conference in Tennessee we already have attendees from the developmental disabilities communities in Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Georgia and Iowa as well as Tennessee.

This is a probably a function of both Jason Laws discussions with provider agencies in Georgia and other states as well as Nashville being a Southwest Airlines hub and the good interstate highways reaching into Tennessee.

The mix of users is a good example of why we schedule these conferences and not only have user groups which usually cover a smaller area.

I started some discussions with Renee Moffatt, Leteisha Echevarria  and Kelly Kinderman at the Buffalo, New York Conference concerning topics for advanced and expert users at the National Conference in February.  The last few years there was usually a conference where a group of long time expert users including Cheryl at NHTC and Bonnie at Lifequest and I would get together and plan some ideas for sessions.

We now have an increased number of advanced and expert users to get input from who are dispersed throughout the US.

The February 2012 conference in East Hanover, NJ will still have many sessions on beginner and intermediate topics covering practically all modules.   I might add that Justin or Allison tend to make those schedules.

The advanced sessions are designed to allow users to talk with other users about how they are implementing and using various modules.  Often the discussions are as much about policies than just how the Therap system functions. And these are truly discussions which will vary based on who shows up. In some cases there are brief presentations from a user before a discussion and sometimes its an open discussion.

Some topics I am considering for this year include:

• Managing staff policies for cellphones and computers when not at the office (or not regular work hours)
• Family Access
• Access to Therap for Individuals
• Preparing for CARF Surveys
• Disaster preparedness (and offline forms)
• Interacting with service coordinators at outside agencies
• 105 uses for an ISP
• Training materials on Therap
• What to do with all of this new data
• How agencies are using Activity Tracking
• Global Templates
• Open Roundtable discussions

I welcome any feedback or thoughts.

We are in the final stages of signing the contract for a hotel. But hold the date for Therap’s  National Provider Administration Conference February 7-9, 2012.

The basic structure of the conference is expected to be the same as the 2011 conference with over 14 simultaneous sessions over 3 days. There will be opportunities to brainstorm with Therap users from around the country as well as Therap programmers and team members. More details will be provided over the coming months.  We will be posting a call for presentations soon.

The conference will be held at a different hotel this year. It will still be in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. We have tried to find a hotel closer to Newark airport so people can more easily take direct, lower cost flights from different parts of the country.

I am getting used to this.
I spoke with the hotel for the February 8-10, 2011 National Provider Administration Conference and it has switched from a Holiday Inn to a Ramada (actually as of today its still neither).    It is the same hotel – just a new name.

Having seen this happen now in if I can remember

Kansas City, Missouri – Holiday Inn to Ramada

Burnsville, Minnnesota – Holiday Inn on way to becoming a Best Western

Southbury Connecticut – Hilton to Crowne Plaza (which was accompanied by jack hammers for the new waterfall).

I think there may have been another – but I can’t remember.

Apparently Holiday Inn is requiring franchises to provide things like lunch at the restaurant (which isn’t an issue for Therap as we generally provide snacks and lunch).

My goal is to continue to find clean hotels with good function rooms at as low a cost as possible in locations people can drive to or fly at low cost.

If you have any questions on the 2011 Provider Administration Conference in Fishkill let us know.  We also have reserved sleeping rooms in the Hilton Garden Inn across the parking lot.

Both hotels are including breakfast with their room rate.

Therap will be hosting a regional conference on April 25-26, 2011 at the Sheraton Dover, Delaware hotel.

There will be general sessions about Therap modules. There will also be sessions geared to Delaware agencies working with the Division of Developmental Disability Services.

Depending on discussions with providers in other local states including Maryland (and in particular the Eastern Shore)  we may add some sessions on topics for other states.

We are also hosting a July Therap Regional Conference in Maryland at the Holiday Inn at BWI Airport in July.

Today I am going to the YAI conference in New York. In addition to New York issues such as OMIG and OMRDD compiance – they have a mix of national attendees as well.

Today I will be there with Kris and Jason.

This is actually the one conference held each year I can walk to from my house.

Next week Justin, Kris and I will be attending the NYSARCA conference at the Sagamore in Lake George.

Justin will be presenting on use of Therap in New York with regards to OMRDD and OMIG regulations and compliance.

We have a relatively busy schedule with several presentations of our own as well as attending seminars from OMRDD and the NYSACRA Technology Committee.
If you will be at the conference, either set up and appointment or just stop by and see us.