Over the past year we have been slowly rolling out redesigned sections of WorkersCompensation.com, with the most recent upgraded area being our National Workers’ Compensation Event Calendar. While this redesign and upgrade has been in the works for a few months, it was recently brought to my attention that it could serve a broader purpose; not only could it be useful for people looking for conferences and educational events, it could help those within the education sector of our industry to keep out of each other’s way.
It seems we have a tendency to pile events on top of one another from time to time.
Last week was a perfect example. The RIMS conference in San Antonio, which ran from April 15ththrough the 18th, directly conflicted with the IAIABC Spring Forum in Atlanta, which ran from the 16ththrough the 19th. The Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference ran April 18ththrough 20th, and the Arkansas Self Insurance Association held their Spring Educational Conference on the 19thand 20th.
It’s kinda sorta hard for someone to be in all those places at once. Personally, I had to be at just two, and it was exhausting.
So, the idea was presented to us that we should proactively encourage all organizations that produce important conferences for the industry to take advantage of one, common calendar, and post their schedules as far out as possible. This would provide others tasked with scheduling events a single, one stop resource to make sure nothing conflicts with the dates they would like to use. And of course, it could persuade them to use alternate dates if important activities already occupy that spot.
Within a couple weeks we will have the ability for organizers to enter the full slate of their scheduled events in our redesigned calendar. We will set up private accounts that will allow them to add and edit their events. We will reach out to all of these organizations with their account information and urge them to participate. We will also have a contact form within the calendar area where other groups can request a free account to post their events.
Large conference organizers, as well as state and non-profit organizations will be able to place their events at no charge. “For profit” seminars and events will be allowed an account for a very reasonable fee.
Currently we maintain this system just for the calendar year. Many of these larger groups schedule several years in advance, and we believe that it would be a huge improvement if we had a common system that looked further down the road.
Watch our news area for more information. If you are part of an organization that produces educational events for the workers’ compensation industry and want to be able to post your schedule on our calendar, email us here for more information.