by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consulting Association

We are still in the early stages of conference registration for IECA’s Fall National Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, we have already passed 600 attendees and are looking forward to a wonderful gathering. Here are six new, improved, or unique aspects to the conference that you may have missed in our registration packet:

(1) Cincinnati is surprisingly easy to fly in to and worth visiting. The Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati (CVG) airport is a hub for Delta airlines, but this new, modern airport offers 200 incoming flights a day with direct service to more than 80 cities. Cincinnati was a major stop of the Underground Railroad for slavesseeking freedom in the north. The Underground Railroad Freedom Center is my favorite place in the city. Also don’t miss the Museum Center (our conference logo) at Union Station where four museums, plus several restaurants, are housed under one roof.

(2) There will NOT be an opening keynote speech. Instead we have invited several educational leaders and innovators (all currently university presidents) to have a round-table discussion about the future of American education on Wednesday afternoon. We will get to “listen in” to their conversation and raise some questions and discussion points. This will be a unique opportunity to hear educational opinion leaders from Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.

(3) We have made nine changes to the schedule impacting therapeutic schools & programs and educational consultants serving those resources. Among other things, a special ‘professional exchange’ time at the end of the School Fair on Thursday, Program Showcases on Saturday, an overlap in the schedule when all conference attendees are together, and a wonderful Master Class on Saturday featuring Dr. Paul Keck, president-CEO of the Lindner Center speaking about bipolar disorder.

(4) There are five pre-conference opportunities. We are offering two 3-1/2 hour pre-conference workshops: One on social networking for consultants and the other exploring autism spectrum disorders. In addition, our one-on-one speed meetings will feature traditional schools. All these are scheduled for Wednesday morning. In addition, IECA is offering tours of Ohio and Kentucky colleges Monday through Wednesday, and a number of schools and programs are extending offers for visits throughout the Great Lakes region.

(5) Conference Central has emerged as a major meeting, learning, exploring place during conferences. For those who have not attended a conference in over a year, wait until you experienceconference central: refreshments, cyber-lounge, bookstore, exhibit booths, member services, raffles, and give-aways, just to name a few of the attractions. We have added comfortable seating to make sure the Conference Central area is a place to relax, network, and much more.

(6) Special events from beginning to end. Wednesday’s dinner; Friday’s reception with plenty to eatand drink; Murray Banks, the amazing Thursday lunch speaker; a Friday general session featuring the Kinship Center, the nation’s leading voice on adoption issues are among all that we have scheduled. We’ll also be featuring the amazing movie “In 500 Words or Less” on Thursday night with the film’s creators in attendance, leading a discussion after the film. We’re even be including pizza and drinks for this special movie night!

We hope to see you in Cincinnati. Registration is open and hotel rooms are still available in the IECA block. Plan your travel to take full advantage of all we have going on. Join us as we “Come Together in the Heartland.”

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

We are pleased to announce the addition of one of Canada’s leading experts on emotional intelligence and high performance to the roster of outstanding speakers. Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry will address the conference as Wednesday’s keynote speaker. He replaces Peter Jensen who needed to cancel due to illness.

I had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Pawliw-Fry a week ago. He brings together a number of personal experiences, academic training, life experiences, and professional accomplishments

that make him ideally suited to open the conference. Having recently moved from Geneva to Toronto, Dr. Pawliw-Fry has just gone through an independent school search with his own daughter and understands well the role of an educational consultant in assuring a great match between a student’s interests and abilities, and a school’s approach to teaching and community. As an international expert on EQ (emotional intelligence), he is able to tie the theory of multiple intelligences to the school and college search and understanding the whole child. EQ has long been a topic of interest to IECA since the author, researcher, and ‘father’ of EQ, Daniel Goleman, spoke at IECA’s 20th Anniversary conference in Boston.

Dr. Pawliw-Fry trained at Harvard Medical School’s Mind Body Medical Institute and at the Stress Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. His many clients include several educational groups, governmental organizations, and Olympic athletes, where he is welcomed as an expert on achieving maximum performance. For his presentation at IECA, he will meld state-of-the art research with real-life inspirational stories to create a thought-provoking talk. Attendees will leave with a custom-designed workbook to ensure the research, lessons, and insights will carry outside of the room.

We always like to hear from previous groups a speaker has addressed in order to ensure great presentations. Consider these comments from some recent presentations given by Dr. Pawliw-Fry:

“Best keynote presentation I have been to in years! Very different than the usual: extremely interesting and powerful—yet highly entertaining. It is not often I hear someone who can really ‘put it together’.”  Ernst & Young

“Dr. Pawliw-Fry is impassioned and enthusiastic.”  Kellogg Graduate School of Management

“J.P. is an inspirational presenter and he infuses passion into his material… He can take complex ideas and simplify them, giving the members of the audience real solutions they can easily implement.”  LANSA, Inc.

Additional information about registering for the IECA conference is available on the IECA Web site.

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

One of the unexpected consequences of holding our first-ever meeting outside of the United States has been the musings of some about whether “consultants are really going to Canada” for the conference, or, in the minds of IECA members, whether schools, colleges, and program representatives are planning to leap the border to take part. On a near daily basis we get e-mails and phone calls asking if “most” of the attendees will be coming from Canada. So with our early bird deadline a little behind us, and now eight weeks prior to the opening of the conference, I wanted to respond to those inquiries.

We completed the early-bird registration with over 550 attendees—a number that will grow steadily over the remaining two months. Among colleges and traditional day and boarding schools, our early registration figures are up as compared to a year ago, with the number of consultants, therapeutic programs, and vendors steady. In fact we are close to having more colleges registered here—at eight weeks still to go—as we had at our San Francisco conference. Our best guess now is for a terrific turnout—but not so crowded that networking and meeting are inhibited in any way.

So are they all Canadians? Hardly. We are excited by the many Canadian institutions that are joining us. Among the first-time attendees are 14 colleges from five Canadian provinces, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia (and many who have joined us in the past). Between these new schools, unaffiliated consultants, and incredible presenters on topics from innovative teaching to adolescent brain theory and EQ, our Canadian participants will add tremendously to the New Perspectives many seek at IECA Conferences. Yet for every Canadian college participating, two U.S. colleges are registered. Among summer, gap year, and traditional boarding schools, 95% are U.S.-based, and among the 230 therapeutic school and program participants already signed up, all but a handful are from the States. Among consultants, we have registrants from Canada, Africa, Asia, and South America, but the overwhelming number, more than 90% are American.

If you have not yet decided about attending, please explore the conference schedule, our list of breakouts, and presenters (all of this information can be found on our Web site). We have a number of exciting new events planned in Conference Central and throughout the conference. We look forward to seeing you in Toronto this spring!

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

Last night came the inevitable battle between the two world powerhouses in women’s hockey: USA vs. Canada. The two teams have dominated the sport for many years, and the impending contest at the Olympics resulted in a pressure cooker building for years leading up to the contest. One game, winner takes gold. Imagine trying to motivate the players, or more exactly, ensure that they peak on the right day at the right time without allowing the stress, pressure, and anxiety to take over.

Peter Jensen

Now you understand the role that Dr. Peter Jensen plays for the Canadians. As founder and director of Performance Coaching, Jensen is the sports psychology trainer for the Canadian women’s hockey team, and has been the sports psychologist for 40 Olympic medal winners. In recent years Jensen has taken his techniques and applied them to real life, instructing leaders in business and education, and parents, in how to “ignite” the kind of passion and commitment in others that Olympians have.

We are pleased to announce that fresh off his Olympic success, Dr. Jensen, author of Igniting the Third Factor, will serve as keynote speaker at the opening session of the IECA conference. He will focus on five actions that all of us can take to motivate students to succeed.

Early Bird registration ends today, so if you haven’t registered be sure to do so today. For more information, go to our conference page.

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

Registration for our Spring 2010 Conference will be opening soon and details of the scores of speakers, breakouts, seminars, and more will be posted on our Web site. I do want to share a little information about one of our featured speakers. Dr. Peter Jensen is a member of the Canadian Olympic team, soon to travel to Vancouver to help the host country’s athletes. Jensen won’t be on the snow or ice, however. His role is to get into the heads of the athletes, providing them with the mental preparation needed by elite athletes to improve personal performance. Author of The Inside Edge, Jensen has been advisor to athletes for many years, including the last six Olympics Games.

Jensen will be joining us at our Toronto Conference just weeks after the 2010 Olympics. But what does such a professional offer to IECA members and school admission staff? His new book, Igniting the Third Factor gives us the answer.

In his new book, Jensen looks at the techniques parents, counselors, and educators can use to motivate students to succeed. At our conference he will offer solutions on motivation, engagement, self-reliance, and developing adolescent initiative using humor and stories based on his own experiences. The heart of his presentation will be five actions that separate igniters from extinguishers, something every parent and educator needs to know, as well as a wealth of strategies that can immediately be put into action.

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by Sarah Brachman, Manager of Communications, IECA

As we head into the final two weeks before our Fall Conference in Charlotte, NC, we wanted to highlight our featured speakers.

Wednesday’s General Session Keynote speaker (1:00 p.m.) is Daniel Pink, author of several books, including “A Whole New Mind,” about the changing world of work, and the six abilities individuals and organizations must master in an outsourced, automated world. A free agent himself, Mr. Pink held his last ‘real’ job in the White House, where he served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. He also worked as an aide to U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, and in other positions in politics and government. (for school, college, and LD representatives, and all educational consultants)

Thursday’s Lunch Keynote speaker (12:00 p.m.) is Nido Qubein, president of High Point University. Dr. Qubein has authored numerous books on leadership, sales, communication, and achievement. The Qubein Foundation has awarded more than $3 million to over 600 students and scholarship endowments at several universities. He is also a business leader, serving as chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company and also serves on the corporate boards of BB&T bank and La-Z-Boy Corporation. (for school, college, and LD representatives, and all educational consultants)

Saturday features a Master Class (9:30 a.m.) by Jeffrey Georgi, clinical director of the Duke University Addictions Program and Intervention Program, and author of “The Adolescent Brain.” Although primarily known for his work in the field of addictions with adolescents, adults, and families, Mr. Georgi is also a national trainer. We invited Georgi back to speak at our Charlotte conference after the positive feedback from his keynote presentation and breakout session at our San Francisco conference. (for therapeutic and emotional growth schools and programs, and all educational consultants)

In addition to these top-notch speakers, the conference will include an abundance of educational and networking opportunities through pre-conference programs, breakout sessions, speed meetings, and all of the activities in Conference Central: the vendor exhibit hall, networking cyber-lounge, bookstore, and one-on-one help with your social networking presence. We look forward to seeing you there!

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The IECA Fall Conference is looking GREAT! I’m so thankful for our members throughout North and South Carolina who have been working to pull this gathering together.  In previous blogs I wrote about the planned tours and pre-conference events.  Today—General Sessions:

There are four General Sessions, one each day, with the first two oriented toward school and college admissions, the Friday session a dynamic examination of federal legislation that could transform the therapeutic industry, and the final day dominated by our first-ever MASTER CLASS.

Wednesday‘s guest speaker we have sought to feature for many years: Dr. Daniel Pink who will explore why creative, non-linear right-brain thinkers are poised to take charge in the future.

On Thursday one of the most fascinating speakers in the country, Dr. Nido Qubein, entrepreneur, business leader, humanitarian, author, and university president, will explore the intersection of success and significance in one’s life.

On Friday we change the pace with a point/counter-point examination of proposed federal legislation that could forever alter the work of therapeutic schools and programs. For the first time, advocates for all points of view will be heard as those organizing on all sides of the current debate takes a stage together, share their views and answer audience questions.
Saturday we introduce, by popular demand, a more advanced and deeper exploration of the adolescent brain. Led by Dr. Jeff Georgi, his short presentation last spring brought demands for his return. This three-hour session will explore this fascinating topic beyond anything we’ve done as part of a conference before.

Watch the IECA Web site where conference information will be posted in early August.

Posted by Mark Sklarow, IECA Executive Director

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If we were expecting an hour-long presentation on economics today by NBC’s Jean Chatzky we got a surprise. The presentation focused on the 8 things that make a difference in determining our financial security.

While a few were expected: habitual saving and investing, MOST dealt with personal traits: happiness, optimism, resilience, passion, intuition, and gratitude. An interesting session and I intend to read her new book The Difference.

Posted by Mark Sklarow, IECA Executive Director

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I just got to preview Jean Chatzky’s keynote presentation for IECA. This presentation is based on her new book, The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even the Toughest Times. The presentation is terrific. First everyone needs to understand which of four categories they are in. The Wealthy (3% of population), Financially Comfortable (27%), Paycheck-to-Paycheckers (55%) and Further-in-Debtors (15%). Once you know the patterns in each group you can learn what steps to take in eight circumstances that make a significant difference as you seek financial security. If you will be in SF Wednesday at 1:00, it is not to be missed!

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