The TEXPERS Blog

Enhance Your Leadership Skills During TEXPERS' 2018 Summer Educational Forum in San Antonio

By Barbara Zlatnik, TEXPERS Associate Director of  Programs & Training

Photo by Allen Jones, TEXPERS Communications Manager

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Conway offered leadership advice as the keynote speaker during last year's TEXPERS Summer Educational Forum in San Antonio. TEXPERS member trustees and administrators are invited back to San Antonio Aug. 12-14 to take part in the association's next forum.

TEXPERS’ annual conference may have come and gone, but there is another learning opportunity on the horizon for trustees and administrators of public employee pension systems. 

Planning is underway for the TEXPERS’ 2018 Summer Educational Forum Aug. 12-14 at The Grand Hyatt in San Antonio. Here’s a look at some of the content, speakers and networking opportunities already scheduled.

The forum’s popular roundtable discussions ask the question, “What keeps you up at night?” and invite your peers from other systems to put their heads together to help solve your problems. Five concurrent roundtables are set: Executive Directors/CIOs, Benefits, Disability, Communications and Small Fund Administration.

Also, author and speaker Beth Ziesenis is sure to become your nerdy best friend as she shows you how to put the technology at your fingertips together to make your life easier at work and home. Known for her blog, Your Nerdy Best Friend, Ziesenis will walk you through a day in the life of a technology-obsessed public employee. You'll learn how a professional nerd solves a security crisis before 10 a.m., learns to make more of a lunch hour with a set of virtual hands, saves money on software before a staff meeting and brings the team together online before the day is done. Then, in “Secret Tech Weapons for Public Employees,” Ziesenis will show you how to use free and bargain technology tools you never knew existed to work more efficiently with your teams, create professional-level graphics and wow your colleagues. This high-energy session will give you more than 30 tools that will leave people asking, "How do they do that?" You’ll discover low-cost, high-value apps and tech tools that you can start using right away.

A few more conference highlights still in development:

• Saturday, Aug. 11 – Advanced Trustee Training
• Sunday, Aug. 12 – Golf Tournament at The Quarry, pre-conference non-golfers workshop, Member’s dinner party with a Taste of San Antonio.
• Monday, Aug. 13 – Keynote presentation, general sessions and breakout sessions. Also, an inspiring luncheon by keynote speaker Chad Hymas that you won’t want to miss
• Tuesday, Aug. 14 – Roundtable discussions, sessions, and conference adjournment after lunch.

Be on the lookout for more information about TEXPERS’ Educational Forum. Click to learn more about the forum and to register.

The annual educational forum is just one of the professional development opportunities TEXPERS’ provides trustees and administrators of public employee pensions systems statewide. Visit TEXPERS.org to learn more.