Board Blog: Start planning now for CBI in Minneapolis

Last Updated on March 11, 2015 by askcbiorg

CBI launched the annual convention in 2012 and it has been a great success. CBI has grown the convention every year in many ways.

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Will Robedee, CBI Executive Director

More sessions devoted to what you need – Prior to 2012, CBI was limited in the number, types and content of sessions it could present due to numerous partnerships agreements. For reasons we will not delve into here, those partnership agreements have gone away and CBI is conducting its own conventions. As a result, the conventions are more narrowly focused to bring you sessions which you want and need. Further, there are more sessions, but quality of sessions and the convention experience is always at the top of our list.

CBI always receives more convention proposals than it can use and regularly denies session proposals which do not meet our criteria. Having stated that, CBI wants to continue to accept any and all session proposals from any interested entity, but CBI will not accept any session proposals from one vendor in order to make sure vendors are not provided a “soap box” to sell you a service or product. In order to curate more sessions, CBI would like to develop a session curation panel. If you are interested in helping CBI produce better conferences, please contact me.

The first CBI solo convention happened in Atlanta in 2012. In planning that convention, we took our previous limitations with respect to our convention size to heart as we needed to make sure we did not put the organization in jeopardy because the number of rooms booked for attendees relates directly to the costs we incur. Response to the first convention was so great that we needed to close registration early.

CBI learned a lesson. It has never had to close registration early since, but being conservative, it needed to book hotel room blocks responsibly in order to make sure it met its financial obligations as a non-profit and return value to members. Even still the draw of what CBI offers at conventions is growing. Every year, CBI exceeds its room block at the convention hotel. We have contingency plans in place for this year as we did last year.

Growth is good. Maintaining reasonable cost of attendance is vital. CBI always strives to keep the cost of attendance affordable. Room rates for single, doubles, triples and quad are still below $200 per night at high quality and highly rated hotels. Convention registration prices remain unchanged. Believe it or not hotel prices for the 2017 convention will actually go down!

The 2015 convention web page is still in development, but it should be announced very soon along with the ability to submit your own session proposal and yes, CBI encourages student session proposals. Our roundtables are a staple of CBI and continue to be very popular.

The annual CBI student production awards call for entries will also be open March 10, 2015. If you think you or someone at your outlet has produced extraordinary content, this is an opportunity to have that work recognized. CBI will even provide you with the information to generate a press release if you are a winner. See the 2015 CBI Awards Page for details.

In short, the CBI NSEMC is a great event and student outlets, just like yours participate every year, and more do so each succeeding year. If you have not made plans (and proposed budget expenditures) to attend the 2015 convention, you should start now.

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