Posts Tagged ‘Conference’

Human Rights Convening

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

June 14-17, 2010

Public Interest Projects’ Convening of the U.S. Human Rights Fund brought together 15 funders and 80 advocates working on three inter-related human rights campaigns to develop new campaign strategies and advocacy skills, and explore collaborations. Travel arrangements were made for the guests to attend the welcome reception:

USHRF10 Welcome Reception

2 ½ days of meetings:

USHRF10 Meeting

three site visits:

USHRF10 Site Visit

and two off-site dinners:

USHRF10 Dinner

Working with Ginger Donnan is an experience unlike any other.  Convenings and special events are by nature a stressful experience for the hosts.  So many people’s needs to be addressed, so many details to consider. Ginger’s organizational skills expertly bring order to chaos.  She identifies a problem and is able to nip it before it has a chance to derail the process.  Ginger is a systems person.  She has event planning down to a science and navigates you through each bump and curve with grace and calm.  It has been more than a pleasure to have Ginger at the helm of our special events–she is magic.  – Sue Simon, Director, Human Rights, U.S. Human Rights Fund, June 2010

Photo credit: Hiroshi Landazuri

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3rd Annual CPER Convening

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

May 20-24, 2010

Public Interest Projects’ 3rd Annual Communities for Public Education Reform Convening and Alliance for Education Justice Meeting were held in Denver, Colorado. The convening brought together 250 parents, students, education organizers, advocates and allies to deepen relationships among organizations committed to advancing education justice across regions, campaigns, and constituencies and to strategize about opportunities to link local, state, and national education justice policy reforms and campaigns.

Learning Circle

Small Group Work

Ginger Donnan Events handled the online registration, including individual attendee communications, rooming and travel arrangements, and logistics, including meeting needs, airport transfers, and vendor relations. Highlights of the convening included local site visits:

Site Visit to Capitol

Site Visit with Mike Kromrey (Smaller)

and performances by a poet from Cafe Cultura and the Latin hip-top band Debajo del Agua:

Cafe Cultura

Debajo del Agua

The following video, created by School Victories at the Convening, gave attendees the opportunity to share what resources and improvements their schools need, as well as the strides they’re making:

CPER Convention: What’s a victory for your school? from ELC Staff on Vimeo.

Ginger Donnan’s handling of these events is nothing less than stunning. Not only does she attend to every detail flawlessly, but she also makes all of our participants feel so important and respected. The professionalism she brings to these events is an important validation of their work, and the fact that she has become, to many of our grantees, an extension of our staff team, is a testament to her warmth and compassion.  - Julie Kohler, Director of Education & Civic Engagement, Public Interest Projects, May 2010

Photo credit: Cara Fandel

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Face Time. It Matters.

Monday, March 1st, 2010

We’re fans of the Convention Industry Council’s public information campaign “Face Time. It Matters.” that was launched in December 2009 because of the decline in off-site meetings being booked due to image concerns.

One aspect of meeting planning that we’ve seen affected by these concerns is whether or not to invite significant others to off-site meetings. Law firm partner retreats are back on the calendar but guests are staying home. The problem is that partners are then anxious to leave as soon as the meeting ends, skipping essential opportunities to strengthen bonds during activities and dinners. We’re encouraging clients to carefully consider this as well as these findings from the research conducted for the ”Face Time” campaign:

• Face-to-face meetings build trust and relationships;
• Both education and training are more effective in a live setting;
• Live meetings actually save time and money;
• Live meetings facilitate problem solving through a more effective exchange of ideas;
• Face-to-face meetings provide the human connection that powers business;
• Face-to-face meetings create jobs and powers the economy.

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3rd National Convening of the Fulfilling the Dream Fund

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

October 21-23, 2009

Approximately 100 grantees and donors of this Public Interest Projects’ collaborative fund came together for three days in Charlotte, North Carolina for a final opportunity to celebrate the group’s accomplishments, strengthen social networks and discuss strategic opportunities. In addition to the on-site management, arrangements were made for the meeting’s production, the guests’ hotel and travel and on-and off-site food and beverage and entertainment, over the course of the 10-month planning period.

The Fulfilling the Dream Fund used Ginger Donnan Events as the event planner for our national convening. She was always the consummate professional, brought us in under budget, and negotiated great deals on our behalf. She is adamant about sticking to the budget, and found creative ways to maintain quality and cut costs. Having Ginger on the team freed staff up to focus on content planning and design, knowing that the logistics were all set. During the convening she handled any travel snafus, made sure that people got their needs met, made sure that everything went smoothly, and was there to troubleshoot as necessary. – Maritza Guzmán, Program Manager, Public Interest Projects, October 2009, September 2008 and December 2007

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Can We Get a Drum Role, Please?

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

The highlights video from this year’s Communities for Public Education Reform Convening is now available! Click here for our round-up about the event and see the video here:

2009 CPER Convening – Highlights from PIP Videos on Vimeo.

We all know that it’s all about video now, but for planners, who view events from a completely different angle than attendees, it’s great when we can see and hear the feedback, in addition to reading the evaluation forms. Not to mention the promotional value the video gives the client!

For more information about the convening, click here.

For more information about this funding collaborative supporting community organizing for school reform, click here.

Next year’s convening will take place May 20-22, 2010 in Denver, Colorado.

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