December 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 53

Staff Spotlight: Amanda Hersey

o modify an old saying, behind every great event is a great woman. At
NRPA, that attribute belongs in large part to Amanda Hersey, the association's director of conferences and point person behind our biggest event of
the year: NRPA Congress. For the past three years, the self-described " over-volunteerer " has worked hand-in-glove with our in-house conferences team and onsite
local host committees to put together a conference that we know has deep influence
on attendees and our industry as a whole. Now that everyone's settled back in at
headquarters following the October conference in Charlotte, we caught up with the
married mother of four to get a better sense of her work and life outside NRPA.
Parks & Recreation Magazine: What
drew you to the type of work you
do here at NRPA?
Amanda Hersey: I think I have been a
planner my whole life - I'm not very
spontaneous! I loved planning my wedding, dinners, family holiday gatherings
and birthday parties, and I am the chairperson for the Fun Fair where my children attend elementary school. Doing
something I enjoy as my job and getting
paid for it is even better. I started my
event career in 2003 working on consumer-based Log and Timber Home
Shows and immediately knew I had
found what I wanted to continue to do!
P&R: We've just finished the 2014
conference - describe your state of
mind ramping up to the event and
immediately after. How did you feel
about the way things went this year?
Hersey: I'm always very excited to
get onsite and get working. I LOVE
the live part of the event-planning
process. It's very rewarding to see the
event you've been working so hard on
come to life. Having such a great team
of people to work with (NRPA staff
and the Local Host Committee) plus
a lot of Starbucks really helps me get
through it. We tried a lot of new ideas
in Charlotte - education areas on the
exhibit hall floor, new networking socials and the upgraded app to name
a few - and we got a lot of positive

feedback onsite and in the survey afterwards. I know there is always room
for improvement, but I felt Charlotte
was a huge success!
P&R: What's the most challenging
aspect of your role at NRPA?
Hersey: They say you can't please
everyone, but I will always strive to
make sure that everyone who attends
the NRPA annual conference feels it
was a valuable experience and that
they walk away with great ideas, feeling motivated to go back and incorporate them into their workplace.
P&R: What's the most rewarding
aspect?
Hersey: I like to help people. By far
the most rewarding aspect of my job is
meeting members and hearing stories
about how the conference makes a difference to each attendee's professional
development.
P&R: What do you consider to be
the top elements that really " make "
a conference?
Hersey: Innovative and relevant content to share with your members is a
top element. Also, making sure you
have a balanced conference schedule
is very important - you need the
right mix of education and networking. Not all conferences include exhibits, or have the volume of exhibits

that NRPA's annual conference does,
but I think it is a tremendous value to
the attendees. NRPA's conference exhibit hall is really fun, lively and just
an amazing display of top-of-the-line
products and services. Bringing all of
those companies together in one place
is truly a benefit for our members. Behind the scenes, having the right internal team members in place is key,
working side by side with the Local
Host Committee and having true business partners in your vendors are the
top elements that make a conference.
P&R: The 2015 conference will be
held in Las Vegas - can you give us
any teasers that might entice folks
to begin making plans to attend?
Hersey: We will be celebrating 50 years
next September, and our initiative for
Las Vegas and the next 50 years will
include a lot of member engagement
to help shape the future of the conference and determine what elements
are most important to the field. So, I
encourage everyone to participate in
the surveys, polls and various feedback
opportunities in the coming months
- your opinion matters!
- Samantha Bartram, Associate Editor of Parks & Recreation Magazine

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