2021 Conference Wrap Up & Save The Date 2022
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By Shane McDaniel, TAGITM Conference Committee Chair
It’s been about a month since we got back to the office from the TAGITM 2021 annual conference, and I’m officially caught up from the event. For many of us, we leave the conference only to walk squarely into budget season with our respective organizations. A side note to that, at least for me: the annual conference really is perfect timing and the best opportunity to talk with peers and vendors before finalizing next fiscal year’s budget submissions. One of these days I’m going to remember to ask if this was intentional timing or not. If so, my hats off to whoever thought to line that up.
As for the conference, what a whirlwind! The feedback received during and after the event has been nothing short of phenomenal. With a litany of uncertainties for months leading up to the date, collectively it was a sigh of relief with so much positivity surrounding how it all went down. That said, mark your calendars now because we’re going to do it again bigger and better next year in Galveston. Get your popcorn ready, we’re bringing the TAGITM party to Moody Gardens April 26 through the 29 in 2022!
So, let’s talk numbers. A quick rundown will tell you we weren’t far off from our 2019 annual conference attendance. We had 449 total attendees at the conference this year, 163 of which were government with the rest primarily being our industry partners. That was only about 23 souls down from the last in-person conference in 2019.
We did not quite hit the aggressive goal we set for ourselves this year, but realistically we knew it was a big ask. Obviously, we didn’t learn our lesson because at the TAGITM strategic planning session in May we set even more aggressive targets for 2021-22. As everyone knows, we do things bigger and better in Texas -- being the good Texans we are, all we know how to do is to shoot for the stars.
All joking aside, we were exhilarated with how everything shook out and consider it a great sign of the support and growth of the organization. Anyone reading this that may be interested in volunteering to help make TAGITM even more awesome than it already is, check out this link to learn more. For those of you that may be a little uncertain, I assure you that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing this for 6 months or 30 years. You bring value to the table and TAGITM will be better off for it.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Conference Committee, I do want to thank each and every one of you for rolling the dice and attending. Our conference would not be a success without our government and industry partner members. The last year has obviously been tough sledding for everyone. Getting the TAGITM community back together was incredible. You folks are amazing!
The 2021 TAGITM conference was one of the first to go back to an in-person event, a gamble that we now know was well worth it. I always say it is a privilege to do what we do, both for our employers and TAGITM. I’ll take that notion a step further and state it was a privilege to drop kick the pandemic to the side and get back to TAGITM’s version of normal with every one of you. I personally cannot wait to do it again. Until next time -- happy budget season, TAGITM. I hope everyone has a safe, relaxing, and FUN summer enjoying everything life has to offer!
