2013 Conference Survey Results

The AiP Board would like to thank all our members who participated in our survey regarding the suggested changes to our AiP annual Conference on Philanthropy. Of the 111 members who responded as of May 17, 2012, 68% voted to rotate the Conference every other year to other popular destinations in the US and Canada.

As the HQ of our AiP Association is based in Chicago, the AiP Board strongly agrees with our members and sponsors who believe that Chicago should remain the home base of our annual Conference. However, since AiP chapters are also being established around the US and there is growing international interest in our community, the majority of our members that participated in our survey felt that it would be wise to rotate our Conference every other year to other popular destinations in the western US, eastern US, southern US, and Canada to rapidly expand our membership through new attendees in those various areas. Furthermore, our members will now have greater access to additional fantastic speakers and philanthropists from other areas that may not have participated in our Chicago location.

Of course, all destinations will have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, even in Chicago the feedback from some of our members is to rotate the Conference between Rosemont and downtown Chicago. The AiP Board, and the Conference Committee, will do its very best to keep the AiP spirit alive regardless of venue and to focus on our mission of making AiP the world's leading community for philanthropic collaboration.

In regards to our 2013 AiP Conference, our main focus will be to substantially improve our sessions so that the following content can be added: 1) philanthropists, major donors, and philanthropic thought leaders will continue to share their stories; 2) experts will be included for technical topics on charitable giving; 3) charitable issues and trends in the non profit world will be addressed; and 4) the soft issues of building strong relationships to empower collaboration will be highlighted.

The AiP Board will also implement new measures to screen speaker selection and content so that our conference will be a safe and positive environment for collaboration among all attendees regardless of gender, culture, faith, or professional background. After all, collaboration is only possible by focusing on our common values versus highlighting our different personal needs and beliefs.

At the moment, the AiP Board is considering an exceptional opportunity at a 4 Star resort in a prime Las Vegas location off the Strip as the potential venue for our next Conference. The AiP Board has assessed some of the potential downside risks with selecting this resort and we have also taken into consideration some of the concerns mentioned by a few of our members and sponsors about Las Vegas. Nevertheless, Las Vegas remains our front runner for our first western venue because of 1) the extraordinary benefits to our members that are being offered by this resort AND 2) the vicinity to the new AiP Chapters that have formed on the West coast.

Please check your emails in the coming weeks as we finalize the dates and location for our 2013 AiP Conference on Philanthropy. If you thought our prior Conferences were amazing, take note that our 2013 Conference is about to raise the bar to even greater heights. This will undoubtedly be the "DO NOT MISS" Event of 2013 in the philanthropic world.


Sincerely,

Enzo Calamo Natalia Kabbe
President President