Reposted from NIVF

National Independent Venue Foundation

Empowering more inclusive and sustainable independent live entertainment communities
What's New in the Training Hub

The NIVF Training Hub continues to grow into a single point of access for on-demand trainings, materials, and templates created for the independent live entertainment community.

Recent upgrades include:

Streamlined navigation so you can quickly find sessions by topic, from safety and security to marketing, workforce development, and equity-focused trainings

Clear tagging for accessibility content so your team can easily return to this February session and related resources any time.​

A refreshed library structure that makes it easier to share specific sessions and materials across your staff for onboarding and ongoing training.​

These updates are designed to save you time, support staff turnover, and keep critical knowledge in-house—even as your team evolves.
Train Your Staff with the Improved Training Hub + February’s Live Session

In this session, you will gain a greater understanding of accessibility and the business case around it.

Nearly 28% of U.S. adults have a disability. If your venue or festival isn’t actively engaging this community, you’re leaving a significant audience untapped. Businesses that prioritize disability inclusion see up to 30% higher net revenue.

We hope you leave feeling empowered to better serve your communities by being welcoming to a more diverse customer base and will be armed with specific strategies to help your venues and festivals grow by serving the disability community.

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FOUNDATIONS IN EVENT & EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT -- PRE-CONFERENCE INTENSIVE AND CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

Weekend pre-conference intensive for cultural venue professionals preparing for climate and disaster impacts

Museums, libraries, archives, historic sites, live collection institutions, performing arts organizations, and other cultural venues operate sophisticated systems for managing people, resources, and facilities—capabilities that become critical community assets during disasters. This year, the International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection (IFCPP) and Majestic Collaborations are co-presenting a tactical bootcamp to earn the ReadyWhen Foundations Certificate in Event and Emergency Operations, which translates in-demand cultural properties expertise— such as a crowd management, logistics under pressure, accessible design, resource coordination, and safety planning—into frameworks that institutions can use to enhance both daily operations and disaster preparedness.

The classroom component of the certification will be taught in a full-day pre-conference on Sunday, April 19. Learn practical strategies for assessing your facility's resilience capacity, coordinating with emergency management partners, and positioning your organization as a community resource during a crisis. This process may even unlock new funding streams through disaster planning and emergency readiness grants. Whether you're improving safety protocols for public programs, documenting institutional capacity for funders, or exploring positioning your venue as a community resilience hub, this training builds transferable skills in logistics, accessible design, stakeholder coordination, and adaptive planning.

Come a day early to take part in an Immersive Intensive at French Quarter Festival on Saturday April 18! This afternoon guided tour of the festival infrastructure offers an insider’s look into how large-scale event systems function in real-time. Experience operations firsthand, hear from leading professionals and learn through interactive activities. This session fulfills the practicum requirement of the ReadyWhen Foundations Certificate in Event and Emergency Operations. Pre-Conference registration is now open!

Find free resources and more details about this approach to readiness at readywhen.org.

Who should attend: Cultural property/venue staff, city officials and municipal workers, security professionals, event producers and venues, historic property managers, operations and facilities staff preparing for disruption.

This offering is part of a broader learning program in New Orleans, April 2026 - where 20 years post-Katrina, we're exploring what it means to protect cultural infrastructure in an era of accelerating disasters.

Registration available now at: IFCPP - IFCPP 2026 Annual Conference, Seminar, Exhibits at the National World War II Museum

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Reposted from AMM

Call for Proposals

We Hold These Truths | AMM 2026 Conference
Virtual July 22 + In-Person July 26-29
Chicago, IL
ammconference.org

The Association of Midwest Museums (AMM) will be welcoming 400+ museum professionals to Chicago in 2026 for their annual conference. Midwest museum leaders and staff are invited to submit ideas for sessions, posters, and workshops, and apply to serve as facilitators of idea generation sessions through the AMM Call for Proposals. Presenting has perks, including discounted registration! Proposals/applications are due January 23.

Learn more about this year’s conference theme at ammconference.org

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Reposted from Zenitel

Zenitel
2026 Technical Training Dates Announced

Zenitel Connect Pro and ICX-AlphaCom
Technical Training

In-person Technical Training in our
Kansas City, MO Offices

February 3-5, Zenitel Connect Pro
June 2-4, ICX-AlphaCom
August 4-6, Zenitel Connect Pro
October 6-8, AlphaCom
December 8-10, Zenitel Connect Pro

The 3-day courses in our Kansas City, MO offices will cover everything from setting up your intercom system to programming procedures.

Can’t train with us in-person? Check out our online trainings through the Zenitel Academy.

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Reposted from HENTF

8th Safety and Cultural Heritage Summit
Preserving Our Heritage and Protecting Our Health

Start-22 Jan 2026
End-23 Jan 2026

Schedule-2 sessions

#1-22 Jan 2026, 1:00 PM 5:00 PM (EST)
#2-23 Jan 2026, 1:00 PM 5:00 PM (EST)

Location-Virtual

last call for registration is January 19^th

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Reposted from MAAM

Building Museums

Dates: March 11-13, 2026
Location: Baltimore, MD

Registration Now Open! Join museum professionals, architects, and planners for three days of inspiration, learning, and networking.

Why register now:

Early Bird Rates available for a limited time
Special discounts for museum professionals
Discounted hotel rooms available while supplies last
Past conferences have sold out—don’t wait to secure your spot! Act now to ensure your place at the premier museum design conference of 2026

Early-bird rates are available until February 2

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Reposted from Tim Richardson

Everybody Deserves a Good Boss. But not everyone has one. In a time when employee engagement is declining, turnover is rising, and trust in leadership feels increasingly fragile, some good leaders are searching for complex solutions. New strategies. New incentives. New systems. But what if the answer to being a good boss isn’t new at all? What if one of the most powerful leadership tools – one that builds loyalty, strengthens culture, and fuels engagement – is also one of the simplest? I was reminded of that truth last week during my daughter’s (Charlotte Richardson, MSW) graduate school commencement through an interaction with Union University president, Dub Oliver. Dub demonstrated, in the most human way possible, what authentic leadership looks like where people truly matter. A Leadership Moment I’ll Never Forget “Hi Tim! It’s been a long time!” In fact, it had been almost five years. Dr. Dub then asked about my son, who graduated in 2018, and his wife – who didn’t even attend the university – remembering both of their names. He greeted our youngest son, whom he had only met once or twice, by name. And when he met my daughter’s boyfriend for the first time, he asked him to share something interesting about himself. He also engaged him in a short conversation. I was struck by that moment.

Leadership Is Built in Small, Consistent Moments

Years earlier, when my daughter was a senior in high school, she and I visited the university to see if it was the right fit. She was hesitant to attend the same college as her older brother, wanting to carve her own path. During that visit, I scheduled a meeting with Dub to thank him for investing in our son during his undergraduate years. For two years, Dub and my son met regularly to read and discuss leadership books together. During our meeting that day, Dub asked my daughter about each of her four younger siblings. He asked thoughtful questions about her intended major and talked with her about her love of dance. He listened carefully to her and engaged her in meaningful dialogue. Dub joined us on a walk across campus, greeting nearly every student, professor, and staff member we passed by name – on a campus of 2,800 students, 500 full-time faculty and staff, and 300 adjunct professors. My daughter and I were both astonished. His interaction with her sealed the deal – Union University was a great fit.

Where People-Focused Leadership Begins

This week I interviewed Dub to learn about his leadership journey. He shared that it started in graduate school at Texas A&M University when he read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. One idea challenged him: What if you could do something that truly separates you from everyone else? Dub decided his differentiator would be the quality of his relationships – especially with students. While he was already a relational person, Covey’s book deepened his commitment. “The beginning of that,” Dub told me, “is learning people’s names, learning their stories and their history – taking a genuine interest in them and being able to recall those things later.”

He also referenced Dale Carnegie’s famous insight: “The sweetest sound to another person is the sound of their own name.” “As leaders,” Dub said, “these are the things we need to do. I began focusing intentionally on learning students’ names – not just that, but knowing about their families, where they’re from, what they’re studying, and what matters to them.”

Dub admits he has some natural ability with memory, but he doesn’t rely on that alone. He takes notes on his phone and carries index cards everywhere: in his office, his car, his notebook, and at home. He uses them to capture meaningful details about the people he meets and reviews his notes to help commit his observations to memory. Dub told me that nothing significant happens without working well with others.

“Most of us have strong teams around us. We want to hire people we trust – people who fit, who ‘get it,’ and who help move the organization forward. Beneath senior leadership is a whole group of managers working incredibly hard every day. One of the most powerful ways to help them advance the mission is simple: know them.”

Speak to them. Encourage them. Remember their birthday. Learn about what moves them. You don’t have to do all of those things. But you do have to do some of them he told me.

Dub told me about a campus presentation by Alan Barnhart of Barnhart Crane & Rigging, when an audience member asked what happens when you have a boss that doesn’t treat people well. Barnhart answered with, “everybody deserves a good boss!” He stressed that sometimes there are people in leadership positions who are good at driving results but their team is worn out, burned out, and frustrated because of the way they are treated, we take that person out of leadership.

It’s true, everybody does deserve a good boss.

Good leaders take a moment to reflect on the people who helped advance the mission and they make sure to text them, send an email, or – most powerful of all – write a handwritten note. Oliver encourages his team to write at least three handwritten thank-you notes each week. Who helped move our mission forward? Then take five minutes to acknowledge them by name or engage them in meaningful conversation. Leadership doesn’t always require grand gestures. Often, it’s the small, consistent acts of recognition that leave the biggest impact.

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Reposted from Abigail Manning

Dear Thriver,

As we step into December, I invite you to check in with yourself. This season has a way of nudging us inward to look at who we’ve become and where we’re heading next. For those of us who are wired to push hard and show up strong, our courage often looks like nonstop drive.
This month, I encourage you to pair that drive with compassion for yourself to:

Think = Choose thoughts that fuel hope.
Say = Promise yourself rest and refuel.
Do = Empower yourself by giving to others.

This holiday season, give yourself permission to restore your energy, realign with what matters, and step into the new year with courage, strength, and confidence ... from the inside out.

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Reposted from NSCC

Northern States Conservation Center 

Collections Caretaker eNewsletter

2026 Course Schedule Update

Welcome to the Collections Caretaker e-Newsletter from Northern States Conservation Center. the newsletter is designed to bring you content that is pertinent to situations we all encounter in our museum and archives work. Feel free to let us know what topics you would like to see featured in Collections Caretaker or even contribute and article.

March

MS002: Collection Protection - Are you Prepared? March 9 to 13, 2026

MS101: Introduction to Museums March 16 to April 10, 2026

MS104: Introduction to Collections Preservation March 9 to April 10, 2026

July

MS204 Materials for Storage and Display July 6 to 31, 2026

MS 207: Collections Management: Cataloging Your Collection July 6 to 31, 2026

MS210: Integrated Pest Management for Museums, Libraries and Archives July 6 to August 14, 2026

MS 267: Museum Ethics July 6 to 31, 2026 

MS253: Disaster Preparation and Recovery October 5 to 30, 2026

MS 262: Moving Collections October 5 to 30, 2026 

Buy-In: Getting All of the Staff to Support Preservation

Ever wonder how you can get the rest of your museum's staff to understand and support preservation of the collections? This short course is for you!

To get anything done in your museum, you often need to get other staff to support the idea. All too often, preservation is left to one or two staff members and others believe it doesn’t apply to them. For example, it is hard to successfully implement a pest management plan without full staff support. Everyone must buy into the notion of preservation. But how? Readings will introduce some ideas and participants in this course will brainstorm with your instructor about what works, what might work – and what doesn’t.

To find out more join Samantha Hunt-Duran for MS008 Buy-In: Getting All of the Staff to Support Preservation starting February 2, 2026.

Collection Protection - Are you Prepared?

Does your museum have an Emergency Operation (Disaster) Plan? This course will get you started making a plan for your museum.

Disaster planning is overwhelming. Where do you start? Talk to Amanda about how to get going. Use the checklist to determine your level of preparedness. What do you already have in place? Are you somewhat prepared? What can you do next? Help clarify your current state of readiness and develop future steps to improve it.

Join Amanda Benson for MS002 Collection Protection - Are you Prepared? starting March 9, 2026 to learn more and begin writing your Emergency Operation Plan.

An Early Bird Discount is available for anyone who signs up for a full-length course from museumclasses.org 30 days prior to the start of that course.

Sign up for a full-length course up to 30 days prior to its start and save 20%!

For our course list or to sign up: http://www.collectioncare.org/course-list

To take advantage of this discount, you must enter coupon code EARLYBIRD at checkout at collectioncare.org

Early Bird Discount for February Courses is January 3, 2026

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Reposted from AAM

Event Information

From Numbers to Narratives: Exploring the Annual Snapshot Survey       Date Thurs. December 18, 2025
Time- 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm Eastern Time

This year’s Snapshot Report sheds light on the challenging year the museum field has experienced, as well as the bright spots that offer opportunities for innovation and changing traditional models. Join us on December 18 for an engaging webinar exploring the findings with Carys Kunze, Research & Data Manager for AAM, Elizabeth Merritt, Vice President, Strategic Foresight & Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums, AJ Goehle, CEO at Luci Creative and Jennifer Ortiz, Director at the Utah Historical Society. Together, they’ll dive into key findings and discuss what they mean for the museum field. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear expert perspectives and spark meaningful conversation about trends shaping our sector.

Its FREE to register

Login or create your profile at the Register button above.

Confirm your contact details and proceed through the check out process. You will not be charged.

After submitting your order, you will receive an order confirmation number – you are registered!

You will receive both an order confirmation email from AAM and an invite containing the event details to add to your calendar.

If you have not received your confirmation email or invite, please check your email’s spam folder before reaching out to AAM.

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