What does a Program Manager for the 2024 Symposium do? Come and find out from James Gerrald and Bailey Bulls, as they help organize one of aviation’s biggest conferences. Also tune in to find out what is new this year and recommendations and strategies of what a first-time Symposium attendee can do to maximize the experience.

The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 18 – James Gerrald and Bailey Bills

Transcript

[Introduction]

TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council.

Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.

[Interview]

Laura: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Hold Room. I'm Laura. Today, we have Bailey and James here, who are the Program Manager and the young professional Program Manager. So, James and Bailey, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves?

Bailey Bulls: I'm Bailey Bulls, the project manager for Swinerton Builders, based out of our Dallas office, and I am, as you say, Laura, the YP Program Manager for the 2024 Symposium. I'm really excited to be here. So, thanks for having us.

James Gerrald: James Gerrald, I'm with Jacobs Solutions out of our Philadelphia office at PHL and working at PHL Airport as a program advisor. This is actually my third year for the Symposium, representing the Symposium, and so very excited to come back. It's always a, always a treat. And yeah, and excited to work with Bailey and you all as well.

Laura: Great. So, for everyone who doesn't know what a program manager does at a conference, can you tell us a little bit more about what your role represents and what you're doing to get the conference in great shape?

James: Sure. A program manager essentially is the ones that are the liaisons between the management team or the executive team/committee for the symposium and the representatives for each track session. So that's the moderators, that's the track hosts, the speakers. So, we're kind of the liaison. Between the two. And so, our responsibilities include ensuring that all the session information is populated, ensuring that the speakers are populated, making sure we have all the headshots, bios, everything that's needed for our track host speakers, moderators, and then passing that information on to ACC/AAAE so they can fulfill their documentation requirements that they need for the conference.

We're kind of that go between. You can think of us as like a jack of all trades, everything under the sun. So, if it's anything from, Hey, can you just tap the speaker's shoulders to a shoulder to get some information on this? Or can we get a little bit of information on that? Or can we change this?

We're kind of where that link between those individuals to get that information. And make changes if necessary and essentially make the executive committee look good.

Bailey: You summed it up perfectly, James. I just view it as more of administrative oversight. So really all the hard work the track hosts are putting in. making sure that we have a really diverse selection of moderators and panelists to just fine tuning and executing the workshops and the just the development that goes into that.

James: Absolutely.

Laura: Very nice. I know that's much needed a big conference like the Symposium. What are you most excited about for the conference?

Bailey: So this will be my first Symposium. So I think first and foremost, I'm just really excited to actually get to meet our committee in person kind of above and beyond that I'm super excited to see all the tracks come to life. And there's a bunch of panels that we've spent a lot of time kind of cross collaborating between the different tracks to make sure that they're diverse and that the content's relevant and just getting to see those come to life is something that I'm really excited about.

And then I work for a general contractor and there's some panels that really applicable to kind of my day to day. That's going to be fun just to get to partake. And there's some really interesting speakers that are presenting. It should be a really, really great event. And everyone's put so much work and effort into it.

And our committee as a whole has been so engaged and everyone's so passionate about the topics that we're going to be presenting on. I would say just about everything.

James: Awesome. For me, everything that Bailey said, I can echo this, those sentiments. And then also, I'm excited about the fact that, every year this symposium achieves new heights. It's taken a notch above. Every year it's getting better and better. And I've only been a part of this for a few years, but it's been growth and a greater Symposium event each year. And we pushed the bar higher. What's it going to look like this year? I see the work that we put in, I see what's going on. And then once it all comes together, it's exciting to see because you're in the mix and you're seeing it. And it's like, man, this is even better than the year before. And it's more people than the year before. And you're meeting more people than the year before. And so that's what I'm most excited about is how can we take it just that, that much higher and it happens year after year. And so that's what I'm excited about is seeing what that looks like this year.

Laura: Yeah, that's actually a really good point. This year, there's going to be a new approach on how to register, how to upload things as you're going in, more technology in that process as you're going through. Can you share anything more on that?

James: Sure. In the past, the registration process has been going through the ACC website. And there being a specific section allocated to the Symposium and the website and you go, you register, you pay through there and everything like that. And then when it comes to the documentation and how things are provided to the executive team for speakers, moderators, and stuff like that, it's just been a process of sending everything back and forth to the program manager or whoever in the executive committee.

This year, it's a different approach. We're using a platform that's specifically dedicated to Symposium. And from what it sounds like, you'll be able to do everything from registering and to actually uploading your documentation within that platform as well. And then we'll be able to track that through a weekly printout that gives us all the information for who's done what and we'll be able to relay that information amongst the entire planning committee. So, they're all aware on what's been received, what's not been received.

Laura: That sounds really neat. And especially on the backend to be able to see all the information, to have it all in one place. And hopefully that'll help out. Bailey, I know you haven't been yet, but James, what is your previous experience at Symposium been like, and what are some really neat things for people who haven't been, or as a motivator for people to sign up and come to the 2024 Symposium in Salt Lake City and anything you wanted to share?

James: I've been fortunate enough to go to three Symposiums. My experiences have been nothing short of amazing. Every Symposium has been lively. A lot of the folks that you see in there, individuals that are moving mountains in aviation, everyone's representing different airports. They're representing different companies. Everyone's friendly. Everyone's having a good time. The networking is awesome. It's great sessions. Very knowledgeable. And a lot of the times I'm mad, I'm jealous because I can't sit in on all the sessions that I want to because it's so many good sessions and you're helping actually plan it.

And so, you're making sure that everything that you are supposed to do, you're taking care of. So you still have to fulfill your obligations to the conference. A lot of times I can't sit on all those sessions that I want to sit in on. And, but I hear great things about a lot of those sessions that I've missed.

And it's like that every single year, one thing I can say about the Symposium is a lot of the content, a lot of the things that are discussed are applicable to the current status of the industry. And so it's not a lot of talking about things 10, 20, 30 years ago. These are things that have happened in rec