Top 5 Reasons to Attend COE's Leading Through Excellence Virtual Summit

COE’s annual Leading Through Excellence Summit is going to look a little (okay, a lot) different this year, as most events have over the past year. Trust us – we’re going to miss the face-to-face networking, the buzzing Fawcett Center, and yummy lunches, too. But, with virtual conferences on the rise, there’s a myriad of benefits and reasons to attend.

If you’re on the fence about attending a virtual conference, here's why you should consider it:

Learning and development is as important as ever.

Even before the global pandemic, the acceleration of change has required learning, development, training, and upskilling in order to remain resilient and adaptive. By attending LTE 2021, you’ll gather actionable insights from industry executives, tap into research findings focused on today’s greatest challenges, and prioritize a culture of continuous learning and process improvement – all while scoring a few professional development points.

Virtual conferences offer an increased amount of flexibility and efficiency.

In the “face-to-face” attendance days, attending a conference in-person meant blocking two to three full days of your calendar while being virtually “offline” – which, of course, has its benefits. But the flexibility of virtual conferences has its upsides too. We’ve built in time between sessions for bathroom breaks, email checking, and quick meetings. We hope you’ll attend all sessions, but if a work emergency arises or there’s a meeting that can’t be moved – it’s easy to “hop out” to attend to work matters.

Save money while accessing a value-packed lineup.

Finding the time in your busy schedule isn’t the only roadblock to attending an in-person conference – there’s also the ticket price. Due to less overhead costs by being held virtually, Leading Through Excellence 2021 is being offered at a much lower price point (4x less). If you haven’t been able to attend in previous years due to budget, this is the perfect opportunity to see 4 top-notch keynotes, attend 5 breakout sessions, visit with sponsors and exhibitors, and network during social hours – all for less! Plus, there’s no budget required for travel and lodging. Or, think about it like this: You could send 4 team members this year for the price of 1 attendee in the past.

Networking and benchmarking opportunities have been limited in the past year, and this is a great opportunity to connect with others.

With no “coffee meetings” or small talk during lunch at COE events, networking with peers at other organizations has become almost nonexistent over the past year. LTE 2021 offers a rare occasion to connect with others! We have allocated time for networking during lunch, happy hour (which includes trivia!), and designated exhibitor time – chat with others about the sessions, hop into virtual exhibitor booths, and make new connections to follow up with after the conference. Hop on Twitter and use the #LTE2021 hashtag to see what other attendees are saying or utilize the chat feature during sessions to exchange ideas and observations.

Boost productivity and motivation.

With stay-at-home orders, prolonged work-from-home requirements, homeschooling kids, and challenging work/life boundaries, we can all benefit from a shake-up in our schedules. LTE 2021 is the perfect opportunity to hit “pause” on your frenzied schedule and take a deep dive into operational excellence best practices. You’ll leave inspired and more connected to your work. You can bring this newfound sense of motivation and purpose back to your team – along with best practices, new ideas, and research insights. We could all use some inspiration, purpose, and re-focus on our work and roles! LTE 2021 offers the time and space to reconnect and engage.

We hope you’ll join us – and hundreds of process excellence leaders – for Leading Through Excellence 2021. You can find details on keynotes, breakout sessions, agenda, pricing, registration, and more on our official Leading Through Excellence pages.

Questions? Please contact cierpial.1@osu.edu with any additional questions or for discount codes for groups of 10 or more!