Palmer Resurfaces in NYC!

Sorry to be such a slacker. Thanks to Joanne for hopping in to take the “What’s the Buzz” baton. As Joanne mentioned, last week I was in Baltimore for the Educational Travel Conference. While we were new to the conference everyone who worries about their travelers was talking about NOLS. I was a presenter at two sessions. The first was on emergency protocols were I was teamed up with the CEO and operations director for Elderhostels. I focused on field response to a crisis and they focused on the headquarters response. We had about 100 people attend the session.

On Friday I was involved in a session entitled “Articulating Risk”. It was a free-ranging conversation that focused on how to talk about risk both to participants and to the media. I think it was a great session, but we only had about 30 in attendance. In numerous other sessions NOLS was held up as the industry leader in risk management.

I was a bit frustrated by some of the overall direction of discussion concerning risk management. There was tendency to cast the conversation only in terms of liability and insurance. These are obviously important, but there is also the ethical imperative. If we are taking people out of their element we have to do our very best to help them understand the risk involved and give them the tools to manage the risks involved.

Today I’m in New York. I met this afternoon with Shannon Heyward and Daisy Hu at New Balance Performance Outerwear. They updated me on their launch this fall and we talked about opportunities for NOLS and NB to work together. Great products are in the works.

Tomorrow I’ll be meeting with folks at Sharedbook.com to hear more about their product and plans. In the afternoon I’ll be in Newark doing a presentation for Newark school teachers who are interested in taking a NOLS course this summer. A NOLS graduate sponsors 4 full-tuition scholarships each year for Newark teachers who will add elements of their NOLS education to their classes in Newark. This is my tenth year recruiting for these scholarships. It is one of my favorite tasks of the year.

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director