2022 Membership Meeting

Join over 100 of your colleagues for formal and informal networking, professional skills development, and challenging and informative knowledge sessions!

Our focus this year is on creating and strengthening connections among our members after two years of COVID and remote work. We hope to give you the opportunity to share your stories of working and living through this incredibly unique time in our history.

To that end, we are sponsoring an all-member collaborative writing project on the topic of "How do you build community effectively at your company when you work with remote workers/in a remote worker environment?" Resources will be available all day Thursday for participants to contribute their thoughts, insights, and experiences. We will also be inviting all members who cannot be physically with us to participate virtually.

Professional Development

Explore various topics in your area of expertise or general Church concerns during 3 rounds of breakout sessions, 2 large-group case studies, plus our annual Peer Group sessions.

Session titles with descriptions and speakers include the following.

• Adapting to the New Reality: Balancing Supply and Demand Imperatives in Printing and Shipping

Covid 19 has reshaped the world as we know it and book publishing is certainly not exempt from these dramatic changes. With the supply chain challenges including unprecedented demand on US book manufacturers, paper and transportation costs surging in the face historically short supply, the book publishing industry must come to grips with building for the “new normal” and preparing for future uncertainties. The session will discuss the current environment and potential mitigation strategies to weather the current storm. 

Speaker: David Hetherington, Books International

• Deeper, Then Wider: Understanding, Engaging, and Growing Your Digital Audience in 2022

Growing an audience in Catholic publishing has always been difficult. In 2022, it's more complicated than ever. Publishers are now facing unique changes to the digital landscape making it more difficult to track results across platforms and gather meaningful audience data—especially in light of Meta's new policy which removed the ability to target Catholics on Facebook and Instagram. This, coupled with the trends in religious practice and the secularization of culture, can leave leaders feeling overwhelmed and under-equipped. In this talk, we'll provide practical ideas and Christ-centered inspiration that every publisher can use to face these challenges head-on.

Speaker: Staff from 5 Stones

• Caring for Gen Z in a Post-Pandemic World

Speaker: Josh Packard, PhD, s Executive Director of Springtide Research Institute, which maintains the largest dataset on young people and their spirituality in the U.S. Josh has a doctorate in sociology from Vanderbilt and he’s the author of several books including Meaning Making:
8 Values that Drive America’s Newest Generations and Church Refugees: Why People are Done with Church but Not their Faith. Josh is a sought-after speaker and author and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CBS, USA Today, and more.

• DEI Is More Than a Committee: Case Study Approach
• Cybersecurity: An Executive Perspective

With ransomware, data breaches and other cybersecurity issues in the news on a daily basis, any organization needs to know what sorts of actions to take even if they don't have a dedicated CIO or CISO. This presentation will provide an executive perspective on the likeliest cybersecurity issues to occur, the types of questions to ask your IT provider, the kinds of answers you should be expecting to hear, and provide further resources that should prove useful in reducing your exposure to threats.

Speaker: Ken Brooks, Treadwell Media Group

• American Catholics: Two Peoples, One Community

Speaker: Steven Millies, Catholic Theological Union

• Post-Pandemic Parishes: Challenges and Successes in Recovering from COVID

Speaker: Kim McMillan, St. Benedict Parish, Chicago, IL

• Preparing Your Organization for the Next Crisis: Case Study Approach

Networking

This year, we expand our organized opportunities for networking with professional peers. On Thursday afternoon, individuals will have the ability to meet one-on-one with others within the Association and from among our exhibitor/sponsors. We will offer 3 sessions of 15 minutes each for these fast-paced and highly-focused conversations.

In addition, we are offering Young Professionals a chance to connect with potential mentors. More information to come on this opportunity.

Traditional peer groups will meet on Friday morning--Editorial, Marketing, Finance, Heads of Houses, Sales, IT.

We will also gather for a social and dinner on Thursday (cost is included in your registration) and continental breakfast on Friday.