If you’ve been to an Association for Conservation Information Conference already, then you know the annual event offers an incredible opportunity to network, share and learn. Unfortunately, most of us have to convince our bosses that the trip is worth the expense. Here is a list of conversation cues to tip the odds in your favor:

1. I will learn, borrow and steal ideas from the brightest minds in conservation communication. I’ll implement them in our state and give you all the credit.
2. Being involved in this national organization, will make me a better and more experienced professional – and therefore a more valuable employee.
3. Our state will surely win some awards. Someone needs to be there to pick them all up. I worked hard for these awards and the least you can do is let me go and accept them.
4. There will be several great speakers at the conference, and I want to learn how to do my job better.
5. I will be able to network with my peers. I will make connections that we can contact year-round to help our agency operate more efficiently by learning from their mistakes and successes.
6. You won’t even know I’m gone. After all, I am just a phone call or email away.
7. I want to present our state’s recent big project to the ACI membership on Tuesday, July 12. We are doing great work here and others need to hear about it.
8. Let me go and I will apply for one of the scholarships that will pay for registration and lodging.
9. ACI really needs people like me – and I want to give back to the profession I love.
10. I will come back refreshed and energized, therefore you can get more work out of me for at least three solid months after the conference.

We hope a few of these points will help sway your boss and convince him or her that in-person networking and conferences are just as valuable today as they were when ACI began 78 years ago. Visit ACI Conference 2016 to learn more details about the conference, download a draft agenda and register. I hope to see you in Tahoe.

Micah Holmes,
ACI President