A2LA Today l June 2017 l Number 135
By Diana Elias, A2LA Senior Director of Human Resources
A2LA held its annual Technical Forum Friday, March 31st through Sunday, April 2nd in Reston, VA.
The Forum attracted nearly 400 attendees this year. The event was once again open to the general public, as well as all of our longstanding assessors, staff, accredited organizations, and other stakeholders. We saw many new faces this year and hope to continue to welcome new attendees in the years to come. A2LA continued its sponsorship program again this year. We had two sponsors who supported the event and we would like to take a final moment to recognize them:
Precision Metrology — Platinum
Qualtrax — Gold
The Forum was immediately preceded by various assessor training courses and other training being offered through our public training program. A2LA offers training and educational programs to all of our stakeholders as part of our mission and goals associated with our nonprofit status.
During the three days of the Forum, our technical advisory committees met to discuss matters and issues affecting each of the specific program areas for which A2LA accredits organizations. Additionally, we continued the newer focus on several smaller, concurrent trainings on Friday that targeted accreditation-related topics as well as leadership, standards news, and quality management tools.
The annual A2LA Awards Dinner was held on Saturday evening. Service milestones were acknowledged for the assessors, Accreditation Council members, and Criteria Council members. Mr. John Knicely received the annual Assessor of the Year Award in recognition of his contributions over the past year in support of the Association as an assessor. Mr. Peter Unger was honored with the John W. Locke Award.
The Annual Meeting of the Members occurred Sunday morning. The late morning and early afternoon on Sunday were dedicated to the A2LA Criteria Council and Accreditation Council meetings, and the A2LA Assessor Committee meeting.
New in 2017 was a videographer who captured many of the educational sessions held on Friday and Saturday. A survey was sent to all attendees following the Forum this year with a link to access these session videos at the end. Many thanks to all of those who attended and took the survey! Your continued participation in these activities helps A2LA to make the Technical Forum more productive and relevant to all attendees. If you have any ideas or suggestions for future Forums, please feel free to email them to forum@A2LA.org.
In 2018, the Technical Forum will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, VA. The dates of the event are from Friday, March 16th through Sunday, March 18th. More information on the 2018 Technical Forum and Annual Meeting is available on our website: www.A2LA.org/Tech-Forum.
We will be taking sponsors again in 2018 as well as offering opportunities to exhibit. Exhibit space is limited. Please visit www.A2LA.org/Tech-Forum for more details.