By Cara McFadden, 2016 Program Chair and Demond Pryor, 2016 Program Chair-Elect
The Program Committee for the 2016 NIRSA Annual Conference & Recreational Sports Expo—which is being held at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, Florida from April 3–6—is excited to announce that Clint Smith and Dennis Snow will be the conference keynote speakers! Clint Smith, an award-winning teacher and acclaimed spoken-word poet, will be the Opening General Session speaker while Dennis Snow—a speaker, consultant, and author, who spent over 20 years with the Walt Disney World Company—will be the Closing General Session speaker.
Clint Smith
Clint Smith is a teacher, poet, and doctoral candidate in education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS). He serves as a resident teaching artist in Boston Public Schools and as a writing instructor at Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk, MA.
A 2014 National Poetry Slam champion, Smith is a great choice to open the “A Strong Core, A Bright Future”–themed conference. Using his experience as an award-winning teacher and poet to share personal stories of justice, community, and education, his art-form illuminates how we can all find the courage to create change, overcome challenges, and unite ourselves through the power of the collective voice.
Clint believes we all share a story, the human story. It’s in the telling, he believes, that we emerge as individuals and celebrate what we have in common. His TED Talk, a presentation of his spoken word poem “The Danger of Silence” has been viewed more than two million times, and was named one of the Top 20 TED Talks of 2014.
The Program Committee found his poetry and insights to be engaging and believe they will help inspire critical thinking around the Association’s strategic values—especially regarding the tenants of equity, diversity, inclusion, health & wellness, and leadership.
In 2013, Clint was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council. He has spoken at the U.S. Department of Education; the IB Conference of the Americas; the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies; and has been featured on TED.com, Upworthy, and TVOne’s Verses and Flow. Additionally, he has been profiled in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Root, NBC News and the book, American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom.
Dennis Snow
Dennis Snow will inspire attendees to aspire to excellence as he closes the 2016 Annual Conference. He developed his passion for service excellence through 20 years with the Walt Disney World Company. Today, he shares that experience by speaking and consulting worldwide.
Dennis began his Disney career in 1979 as a front line attractions operator. He advanced through the company, learning and applying the skills it takes to run a world-class, service-driven organization. He launched a division of the Disney Institute responsible for consulting with some of the world’s largest companies. This division quickly became the fastest growing venture of the Disney Institute and experienced repeat business of nearly 100%.
He also spent several years with the Disney University, teaching corporate philosophy and business practices to cast members and the leadership team. While there, he coordinated the Disney Traditions program, which is universally recognized as a benchmark in corporate training. In his last year with Walt Disney World, Snow’s leadership performance was ranked in the top 3% of the company’s leadership team.
Dennis gained the Program Committee’s attention through his dynamic presence of energy and passion around excellence. With his experience at Disney and consulting, we believe Dennis will provide attendees with the motivation and spirit to leave the conference ready to begin the hard work that needs to be done back on our campuses.
His articles appear in a number of industry publications and he is a featured guest “expert” on customer service on several business news-talk radio shows. He is the author of the book Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service, which has been used in organizations around the world as a blueprint for organizational excellence. His newest book, Lessons From the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life, has just been released.
Invited speakers
In addition to the keynote speakers, the Program Committee has planned an array of invited speakers who will infuse their expertise throughout NIRSA 2016. Fabian De Rozario will lead a preconference session focused on intercultural competence, which is connected to our strategic values of global perspectives and leadership. Attendees will then have opportunities to engage with Ed Cabellon, Susan Komives, and Paul Wesselmann during the conference.
Ed will challenge attendees to think about digital identity and data visualization in a new way while Susan will offer 40 years of experience related to developing leadership capacity in college students. And we are so excited to welcome back Paul Wesselmann, our closing speaker from last year’s Annual Conference. Paul has definitely inspired us to let go of the things we no longer need, to hold onto what really matters, and to move forward together as an association.
Registration information for the Annual Conference will available in the coming months—keep an eye on the NIRSA news and on NIRSA’s Facebook page and Twitter account for the latest information. Start making your plans to join us in Kissimmee, FL to help us move forward in creating “A Strong Core, A Bright Future” for collegiate recreation!
For more information about invited speakers at the 2016 NIRSA Annual Conference & Recreational Sports Expo, please contact NIRSA Director of Professional Development Kristen Gleason.
