Encouraging Trends in VPPPA Conference Attendance
Attendance at the 30th Annual National VPPPA Conference here will be approximately 2,600 people, VPPPA Board Chairman Mike Maddox said Aug. 25, adding that the prediction comes from an association IT staffer whose prognostications have been on the money in past years.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Attendance at the 30th Annual National VPPPA Conference here will be approximately 2,600 people, VPPPA Board Chairman Mike Maddox said Aug. 25, adding that the prediction comes from an association IT staffer whose prognostications have been on the money in past years. The 2,600 estimate is about 100 more attendees than last year's conference in Nashville attracted, he said.
New Orleans draws higher attendance for the VPPPA annual national conference than any other city because the association's two largest regions are on either side of the Big Easy: Region VI, consisting of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana; and Region IV, which includes Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. The most recent VPPPA annual national conference held in New Orleans took place four years ago and had 3,550 attendees, Maddox said.
Higher attendance this year is encouraging, as is the number of companies and sites sending large contingents -- 20, 30, 50, 70, or more. ExxonMobil and Phillips 66 tied for the largest number of attendees sent by a single company, with 87, and Cargill LG's site in Fargo, N.D., sent more people to this conference, 41, than any other individual site, he said during this morning's Opening General Session.
"It's very encouraging to see that [large contingents from many companies] is happening," Maddox said in a subsequent interview.