“You realize that the problems you have in your community are not unique to your community. You see other people – other organizations from across the country, literally from coast to coast. You get ideas and insights and information that will be very useful to you. Plus, you have a chance to analyze and compare what you’re doing with some of the best practices of other locations.”

“You not only listen, but interact and engage and say, ‘well, hey I notice that you said this, but here’s what I’m facing, have you ever faced that?’ Then (I’m) able to go right back and hit the ground with real solutions that I know have worked.”

“It is one of the few conferences that you come away from feeling like you really learned something. You’re always pushed at this conference. There’s always something that kind of makes you rethink the way you look at an issue.”

"Every one of us are going to make mistakes, and every one of us are going to have successes. The more we interact together and learn from one another and connect with one another, the better chance we all have - individually and collectively - to be successful."