During the 2016 conference, we celebrated our 20th conference with several activities. Attendees who used the conference app could participate in a scavenger hunt, earning points by meeting exhibitors and AMTE leaders, attending highlighted sessions, tweeting about the conference, uploading photos, and completing quiz questions. Amber Candela acquired the largest number of points and was recognized at the Business Meeting. Thanks to David Glassmeyer and his team from the Celebrations Taskforce that included Erika Bullock and Suzanne Harper for leading, organizing, and implementing this activity.
During her remarks, President Christine Thomas shared the following information about our conference history. The information was compiled by Jennifer Bay-Williams for the Celebrations Taskforce.
- Sessions in the first AMTE conference in 1997: 30
- Sessions in the 2016 AMTE conference: 243
- Presenters in the first conference: 69
- Presenters in the 2016 conference: 484
- Sessions held in 20 years: 2,475
- Presenters over 20 years (counted at most once per year): 5,084
- Different conference cities: 14
The program book contained notes about important events in our conference history. Twenty Years of Conference Moments highlighted keynote speakers and their topics, which provide insight into the issues discussed over two decades. The information was compiled by Suzanne Harper for the Celebrations Taskforce.
Beginning on Thursday, we had fun and lots of conversation compiling and displaying data about our 20 years of conferences. Two colorful line plots were created. In one plot, participants placed a flag to show the number of conferences attended. See the photo below. In another plot, participants placed a flag to show the year and city of their first conference attended. See the photo below. Thanks to Dusty Jones and his team from the Celebrations Taskforce that included Mark Ellis and David Glassmeyer for leading, organizing, and implementing this activity.
Susan Gay, Chair, AMTE Celebrations Taskforce
