Hello all,

Please excuse cross postings.

The Western Museums Association 2013 Annual Meeting is in just over 2 weeks! From October 9-12, 2013, over 400 museum professionals will gather in Salt Lake City, Utah to share ideas, create stronger professional networks, and learn about museums in the Western Region. This year’s theme is Drive On! Museums and the Future. Our goal is for attendees to return to their museums with new ideas, visions, and goals using this forward-thinking mindset.

The WMA has broken over 50 sessions out into six interdisciplinary tracks including Business, Careerpath/Leadership, Community Engagement, Technology, and Collections and Visitor Experience. Much like many of the roles within your own institutions, each session incorporates multiple perspectives from across museum disciplines.

There is still time to make arrangements to attend WMA 2013! The Hilton Salt Lake City Center is the official hotel of the 2013 Annual Meeting. Please follow this link to register for the meeting: www.regonline.com/WMA2013.

As we all know, it is important to be continuously developing in our museum profession, whether by connecting with our professional peers, learning about new projects and skills, or expanding our mind-frames from our own organizations’ processes. Need help justifying the cost of your attendance to your boss? Check out our Justification Toolkit here: http://westmuse.wordpress.com/2013/0...ding-wma-2013/.

Learn more about the 2013 Annual Meeting here: www.westmuse.org/conferences/2013_salt_lake_city.html

There are still many options for free and ticketed events at the 2013 Annual Meeting. Both the Opening and Closing Receptions are free for all attendees, and the WMA’s new programmatic feature WestMusings | Ten Minute Museum Talks will be taking place at the latter. There are also pre-conference tours and workshops, Evening Events, affinity luncheons, and many other opportunities for networking and engagement. For more information, please visit: www.westmuse.org/conferences/events.html.

On behalf of the Host and Program Committees, as well as our sponsors, WMA welcome you to Salt Lake City for the 2013 Annual Meeting – an event sure to have you looking to the future, ready to explore new possibilities, and push new boundaries for your museum.

All the best,
Lauren Valone
Program Coordinator
Western Museums Association