I promised an update on the EMP Event, and registration is officially open. The Personal Branding Workshops will be taking place in nine cities from Oct. 15th-19th. There’s an impressive list of speakers ranging from the executive director of the New England Museum Association to the interim chair of the JFK University Museum Studies program in the Bay Area. There are registration links for each of the host cities, but if you have general program questions you can e-mail Greg Stevens at gstevens@aam-us.org.
The second exciting thing to tell you about is that voting is now open on the AAM 2013 session proposals. The Center of the Future of Museums blog discussed the topic today, explaining that there’s no strict formula for how the “votes” are going to be considered, but they definitely won’t hurt. So, be sure to login at the AAM website (or register, if you haven’t yet!), and go show your support for the fabulous sessions that have been proposed.
Today on the EMP facebook page I asked people to let us know if any EMPs had submitted proposals or were involved in them. These are the ones that I know about so far, listed by their row number:
#293: “Stories Without Words: Constructing Narratives Through Objects and Artifacts.” This session is going to explore some of the most contemporary ways that museums are using objects to tell stories, looking at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum and the Maryland Historical Society.
#330: “Emerging Museum Professionals – Our Stories.” This is a bit of shameless promotion, with my own proposal. It’s about EMPs and (predictably) their stories, utilizing the theme of the conference to highlight and document the stories of our group. I’ll be the session leader, and I’ve recruited a wonderful set of EMPs to tell stories as well. Kate Laurel Burgess-Mac Intosh has contributed to the blog in the past, as has Mark Schlemmer. Nancy York is the president of the Greater Phoenix Area EMP Group, and between the three of them I think we’re going to hear some unique and inspiring tales from the field. We’ll also be inviting stories from people in the audience, to share their perspectives and experiences with being an EMP.
#1: “The Future of Museum Education.” Two of our EMP friends (@timrhueii and @museums365 on twitter) got possibly the most coveted spot in the entire session list – they’re #1. While I can’t say for certain that they’ve got the top number of “likes” so far, I would guess they’re in the top 5. That doesn’t make them less worthy of your vote! And I promise I’m not just saying that because I agreed to be one of the provacateurs; I attended this session last year and it was one of the most stimulating of the entire conference for me. I’m incredibly excited to see what happens during the 2013 conversation, if the proposal is accepted.
I’m confident that there are more sessions that include EMPs, and we’ll try to update this post as we find out about them (or leave us a comment!). Otherwise, we encourage you to check out the other session description and throw your support behind them. The 50+ page session list can be a little intimidating, but it’s worth it to look at the amazingly diverse proposals that have been submitted. I’ve personally been trying to pick a random page number from the middle of the pack to make sure that those in the latter half of the list are getting attention too.
Voting ends Friday October 5th. So be sure to head over and add your votes asap!
