From September 16-19, 2015, The Enrollment Management Association welcomed its largest-ever group of attendees—794—to the 58th Annual Meeting, at the Red Rock Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite the bright, shiny lure of a casino just two floors below, attendees found standing room only in many of our sessions and the meeting was a great success.

The admission and educational leaders in attendance enjoyed a robust lineup of speakers that ran the gamut from inspirational leadership philosopher Drew Dudley to expressive social media guru Crystal Washington and dynamic marketer Dr. Americus Reed, II. Attendees enjoyed 45 peer workshops delivered by nearly 100 presenters, tracked to four key professional development categories: leadership, data/finance, marketing, and assessment. Before the conference, more than 100 new admission professionals took advantage of the opportunity to train with the best in the business at the Admission Training Institute (ATI).

Following last year’s rainout, many attendees were looking forward to the fun run planned for Saturday morning, and we had a great turnout and excellent weather. Our group raised $4,000 for Opportunity Village, an organization that serves people with intellectual disabilities, providing vocational training, day services, advocacy, and social recreation to 3,000 individuals annually. Their workers serve 350,000 meals to the local Air Force base, shred 12 tons of paper per day, and were the chief manufacturer of Elvis Presley’s scarves!

When asked if the The Enrollment Management Association conference “fulfilled their reason for attending,” a resounding 83% of the post-meeting survey respondents said “Absolutely!” In addition, the vast majority (97%) said they would definitely recommend the conference to others.