Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to the ACMA Winter Conference in Sedona, Arizona. It’s three days of conference sessions, networking with local government people, and some excellent career advice.

I sit on the conference planning committee as well, which was a fascinating experience for this conference, as well as for the ACMA summer conference last year. This year, many of the sessions were focused on the horrible budget situation, which makes sense, of course. Here are some of the sessions:

• Creating a talent strategy for your local government.
• Economic update (a perennial favorite)
• How To Sweeten Your Tea Party
• A lunch presentation about the current budget crisis (and its history) from Secretary of State Ken Bennet
• Managing the Challenges of Budget Cuts
• Forged in the Fire of Financial Meltdown, New Ideas Emerge
• Speed Coaching (the session I planned, I’ll discuss more)
• A breakfast session on “Generation Why?” (which I did a tiny bit of work on)
• Ethical Decision Making in the New Economy
• Legislative and Legal Update

So, among those, I was the lead planner for the speed coaching session. We had an amazing group of about 12 managers (city and county; retired, current, and nearly-retired) and about 8 “students,” i.e. early career professionals. I had Mike Hutchinson, the retired city manager of Mesa, Arizona, review my résumé, and I talked to a few others. I also brought an annoying triangle to ring that helped move people among managers. That was a great experience, both planning, running, and participating in the session.

One problem I have at these sessions is that I am actually a little shy (or nervous, depending on how you see it) around such accomplished individuals. They are working at the top levels of local government in Phoenix, and this is their twice-annual (or once a year, for some of them) chance to network and learn from other managers.

So given the chance to free-network during receptions and dinner, I often stay with one or two people that I know and not wander very much. I will say hello to people I know, but I can’t engage in conversations. Maybe once I am in their position, I will feel more comfortable about it.

Will Bessette, a colleague in my program, and I split a room in Sedona, and I was glad to have another young guy around who is enthusiastic about breaking into local government.  It was especially great to have him around because he is an active networker, and seems to be really great at it.  The most encouraging part was his excitement to be there, even though he seemed to be the only student there who was not given a scholarship to go to the conference by the Marvin Andrews fellowship.  Although, Joe B was also there, and I don’t believe he had a scholarship to go, but this was not his first time.  But I digress.

Overall, of course, the conference was an amazing opportunity. I learned so much, and had the chance to talk to some of my favorite professionals in Arizona. Though I am not one that is excited to travel often, it was a great experience, and I look forward to many years of networking.

My final thought came to me while I was driving back down from Sedona with Daniel. I imagined a time in the future when Cynthia, Daniel and I (the 2010 cohort of the Marvin Andrews program) are all at that conference, reflecting back 20 years to our first and second winter conferences. We’ll (hopefully) have families, be some of the most innovative managers (or assistant or deputy managers, or department heads, whatever) in Arizona, and we’ll reflect on some of our time together as young, hopeful career professionals. What a nice dream, but it’s going to take a cup of hard work, a liter of tenacity, and a pound of luck. I guess we’ll see if that recipe helps this prediction come true. Stay tuned!