Events

The ToP Network Annual Gathering is an event designed to bring members of the ToP Network and ToP practitioners together for three days of laughter, learning, sharing and participation. The term ‘gathering’ means to bring people together or assemble from various places. Gathering represents the spirit of the event better than the definition of a conference, which is defined as an act of conferring or consulting.

The purpose of this ERACCE-hosted, Crossroads-facilitated training event is to provide an opportunity for the participants to develop shared language for talking effectively about systemic racism, explore an introductory analysis of systemic racism, and examine basic strategies for dismantling racism within their organization. This in-depth workshop includes discussion of the socio-historic development of institutional racism; the definition of racism, how racism and racist institutional values have been legally codified and institutionally perpetuated throughout U.S. history; how racism manifests on individual, cultural, and institutional levels; and how long-term organizing informed by antiracist values can lay the path toward institutional antiracist transformation. Krista will be facilitating a portion of this workshop. 

Join us for an enlightening lunch and learn discussion focused on facilitating with difficult personalities! Whether it's the passive-aggressive participant, the racist, the sexist participant, the loudest voice or the squeaky wheel, it's clear that the people who attend our meetings and events can have a profound impact on both the process and the product of a facilitation. In preparation for this session, read this blog post and reflect on your own facilitation experiences. What extreme personalities most pop-up in your sessions? What are your go-to strategies for navigating these difficult personalities? During our fast-paced, 30-minute session, we’ll lead a thought-provoking focused conversation sure to leave each of us with new insights and takeaways we can immediately apply to our facilitation work.

Every day we make thousands of decisions and many of our decisions can be made the usual way - through gut intuition. Should I grab an apple or a candy bar for a snack? Should I attend this session or wait until next month to attend one? (Easy answer: Attend this one.) However, some decisions require more information. During a disruptive time, these decisions can have a more serious impact. Should I launch a new member recruitment campaign in light of the pandemic or wait a few months? Should we change our dues structure to allow adjacent audience segments to join or leave it alone? In many cases your colleagues will weigh in on the decision, sharing their intuition until the HiPPO speaks. And at many organizations, the HiPPO's opinion wins. A HiPPO is the Highest Paid Person's Opinion. While intuition may be the key to brainstorming, you need data to filter the good ideas from the bad.

This live, 12-hour broadcast will feature education and activities worth 12 clock hours at absolutely no charge to you! Given the global challenges that our industry has been facing, this is an opportunity to connect virtually to gain valuable education and resources to help our industry move forward stronger than ever before. Last year, nearly 11,000 meeting and event professionals participated in MPI’s GMID: Virtual digital experience.

The live broadcast will run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (06:00 to 18:00) Central Standard Time and connect you with industry leaders from all over the world. The Meetings Mean Business Coalition announced the 2021 GMID theme, “Meet Safe,” which will guide the content of the broadcast. Kate will be attending.

Join us for our open community of practice dialogue in a new, 30-minute express format! We ask participants to bring with them any facilitation challenges (past, present or future) they’d like to discuss as a group for supportive feedback, debrief and evaluation. No challenge is too big or small. We leverage the collective wisdom and experience of the group to brainstorm possible solutions, advice and recommendations in a safe and growth-minded environment.

The premise is two-fold: Grab your favorite grape (in wine form, of course) or cocktail/mocktail of your choice and spend 30 minutes with us as we talk about your favorite must-have apps for your phone or tablet! In addition to sharing the apps we can’t get enough of, we’ll invite you to bring your favorites (either personal or professional), share with us a brief overview of each and answer any questions that may arise from fellow participants. You’re bound to leave with a handful of new apps you’ve never heard of before — and have an enjoyable evening doing it!

Join us for another enlightening lunch and learn discussion! Each session we’ll focus on a different facilitation core competency: from developing collaborative stakeholder relationships and creating a participatory environment to supporting implementation through quality documentation and everything in between. The format is simple: Read the featured article or blog post, watch the short video, or reflect on a certain element of your facilitation practice prior to attending. And in just 30 minutes, we’ll host a fast-paced, though-provoking focused conversation sure to leave each of us with new insights and takeaways we can immediately apply to our facilitation work.

Join us for our open community of practice dialogue in a new, 30-minute express format! We ask participants to bring with them any facilitation challenges (past, present or future) they’d like to discuss as a group for supportive feedback, debrief and evaluation. No challenge is too big or small. We leverage the collective wisdom and experience of the group to brainstorm possible solutions, advice and recommendations in a safe and growth-minded environment.

The premise is two-fold: Grab your favorite grape (in wine form, of course) or cocktail/mocktail of your choice and spend 30 minutes with us as we talk about facilitation graphics. We’ll share with you the importance of graphics in your facilitation work, as well as some of our graphics tips and tricks. We’ll then invite you to grab a notepad and marker (or tablet and stylus!) to get some hands-on practice. For those new to graphics, not to worry! This is a great place to start. For those a bit more advanced, this is a great opportunity to refine your practice.

Join us for another enlightening lunch and learn discussion! Each session we’ll focus on a different facilitation core competency: from developing collaborative stakeholder relationships and creating a participatory environment to supporting implementation through quality documentation and everything in between. The format is simple: Read the featured article or blog post, watch the short video, or reflect on a certain element of your facilitation practice prior to attending. And in just 30 minutes, we’ll host a fast-paced, though-provoking focused conversation sure to leave each of us with new insights and takeaways we can immediately apply to our facilitation work.

Join us for our open community of practice dialogue in a new, 30-minute express format! We ask participants to bring with them any facilitation challenges (past, present or future) they’d like to discuss as a group for supportive feedback, debrief and evaluation. No challenge is too big or small. We leverage the collective wisdom and experience of the group to brainstorm possible solutions, advice and recommendations in a safe and growth-minded environment.

The premise is two-fold: Grab your favorite grape (in wine form, of course) or cocktail/mocktail of your choice and spend 30 minutes with us as we focus on team building. We’ll be sharing some activities to boost team building and ask participants to bring their best team building activities to the session as well!

Join us for another enlightening lunch and learn discussion! Each session we’ll focus on a different facilitation core competency: from developing collaborative stakeholder relationships and creating a participatory environment to supporting implementation through quality documentation and everything in between. The format is simple: Read the featured article or blog post, watch the short video, or reflect on a certain element of your facilitation practice prior to attending. And in just 30 minutes, we’ll host a fast-paced, though-provoking focused conversation sure to leave each of us with new insights and takeaways we can immediately apply to our facilitation work.