Hello! I’m Stewart Donaldson, 2015 AEA President. I’m on my way to Evaluation 2015, the 73rd event on the International Year of Evaluation list of conferences. The President and CEO of our management company, SmithBucklin, emailed to give me a hearty congratulations on what appears to be a record-breaking AEA conference in Chicago. “From what I hear, you are already over 3,000 registrants and could get to 3,500. As impressively, there are 408 registrants from 73 countries … wow! As I understand it, that’s a record. Also, you have 370 virtual conference registrants that will likely climb to well over 500 and could approach 1,000. Again, wow! I recall it was one year ago (in early November) when you shared with me your vision and high-bar goals for the conference and AEA in 2015. I could not be more thrilled,” said Henry Givray.
Lesson Learned: I am so pleased with all the help I’ve had this year from the AEA management team and staff, and grateful for the outpouring of AEA member proposals and initiatives to advance this years’ theme of Exemplary Evaluations in a Multicultural World: Learning from Evaluation’s Successes across the Globe. The theme seems to have inspired and energized evaluation professionals from around the world to join us either in Chicago or online to discuss what has gone well over the years in evaluation practice. I am hopeful that with this focus on success we will learn new ways of improving our practice, and our proceedings will be used to help create a truly Global Evaluation Community.
I can’t wait to see you in Chicago or online for what promises an inspiring, multi-cultural, and extraordinary evaluation conference!
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what was the final registration count? all the sessions I attended were terribly overcrowded; I hope next year’s room assignments will take into account AEA’s great success and popularity.