Conference Recap

We’re back from the 2022 NEMA Conference! It was wonderful to connect with old friends and new colleagues for a few days in Springfield, MA.

Location and Venue

The 2022 NEMA Conference was held at the Sheraton Monarch Place in Springfield, MA. With the exception of friends from Maine and the Northeast Kingdom, the city’s location seemed to be a draw for this year’s conference. Springfield is fairly easy to get to from most points in New England. Once there, it’s a walkable small city with a lot to offer from classic local restaurants, amazing museums and historic sites, and lots of entertainment whether you want to literally roll the dice or take in a symphony performance.

For our founder, it was a nostalgic homecoming. It was great to hit up two favorite spots - the Red Rose and Theodore’s. We were glad to share our Springfield knowledge with our colleagues!

Outside of a few sessions that we saw, there was ample seating and most rooms were pretty comfortable. The hotel staff did a great job with food lines and snack breaks and were friendly when needed.

Of course, huge round of applause for the NEMA staff! It was wonderful to be back in person and the staff created a welcoming, supportive environment for all.

The Small Museum Toolkit

We’re so grateful for everyone that attended The Small Museum Toolkit on Wednesday, November 2. Over 60 museum pros joined us to talk about disaster planning, collections care, marketing, and online programming.

Thanks to everyone who came to chat with the speaker time throughout the conference. We’re happy to keep answering your questions, so be in touch!

Small museum pros are a special breed of rockstar who literally and often do it all. We’re so glad that we were able to share usable tools! Don’t forget to access our slides, workbook, and handouts on the NEMA website!

Dining Across Disciplines

One of the perks of working in museums is behind-the-scenes access to unique and special places. At the NEMA conference, we get a chance to peek behind the curtain with field trips and evening events. This year was no exception.

The Springfield Museums hosted Dining Across Disciplines. The evening kicked off with appetizers at the history museum; dinner at the science museum; and dessert at the art museum. Attendees had time to explore some amazing exhibits (and eat delicious treats!).

Many agreed that the highlight was the mini-planetarium show with Jim. He was an amazing interpreter that took us through the stars (and fireballs) with a healthy dose of humor and an obvious love of his subject area.

Learning from Others

Overall, we attended a number of useful sessions that would be great for clients to consider. We were impressed by the advancement efforts at the Seacoast Science Center and how the Maine State Museum is using their time to collect community input during a very unexpected construction closure. The House of the Seven Gables is leading the way on climate change initiatives and community partnerships.

We also took an opportunity to learn more about unionization efforts in museums in a session with MassMOCA staff and a grad student at The Ohio State University. This is a topic to watch.

Richard Josey’s keynote truly resonated. As museum professionals we tend to operate on austerity - budgets, staff, personal care, etc. Richard’s talk emphasized taking care of ourselves, processing difficult moments, and finding ways to connect with our communities.

The best moments were the many conversations we had over drinks, in the exhibit hall, and around the area. It was great to enjoy hugs with old friends, offer teaching moments to new ones, and to connect with fellow IMPs and learn about their projects, successes, and challenges.

Needless to say, we’ve already saved the date for 2023 in Portland and hope you do to!