AMC Leadership Summit

About this Project

The AMC Leadership Summit is an annual half-day interactive learning experience for the executive committee of NYU’s Administrative Management Council (AMC). This is the first time the AMC has spearheaded and invested in the professional development of its own officers and members in leadership positions. The first summit was held on July 31, 2020, and included four skill-based sessions attended by over 30 AMC leaders. It also featured subject matter experts and members of NYU leadership, including: Stephanie Allen, Assistant Vice President for Talent, Learning, and Organizational Development; Sabrina Ellis, Vice President for University Human Resources; Monroe France, Associate Vice President for Global Engagement and Inclusive Leadership; and Karen Nercessian, Associate Vice Provost for Strategy and Chief of Staff to the Provost.

Timeline: May - July 2020

Project Members:

• Cassandra Bizzaro - co-creator, learning design, project management, communication strategy, session lead

• Michael McCaw - learning design, project management, opening speaker, session lead

• Seamus Mullin - learning design, project management, event management, session lead

• Katie Santo - co-creator, learning design, project management, communication strategy, session lead

Summit Planning

The idea for a leadership summit came from conversations with my fellow Communications Committee co-chair, and outgoing AMC chair, Cassandra Bizzaro. In recent years the AMC, specifically its committees, has increased the number and type of events it holds and so we wanted a way to set committee chairs up for success as they create, plan, and lead these events. Our pitch was well received by the AMC chair and administrative coordinator, so what started as a way to share best practices around communication strategy and event planning turned into a half-day leadership experience focusing on:

• Effective Meeting Management - facilitation skills, delegation, meeting scheduling, project management

• Strategic Event Planning - event planning, branding, event promotion, budgets, vendor management

• Leadership Principles - goal setting, executive presence, cultural competency, inspiring others

• Communication Successes - capturing data, amplifying stories, communication strategy

We met bi-weekly, and later weekly, to strategize around format, content, participants, guest speakers, and all the minute details that come up when planning an event like this. Michael McCaw coordinated a call with Academic Impressions, professional development consultants specializing in higher education communities, and they provided us with additional content resources to aid in our learning design. We were able to pair these resources, which represent tested industry best practices, with subject-matter experts within NYU to develop the learning design for each of our sessions.

Slide Deck Design

Although the summit featured multiple interactive activities and discussions, I created a slide deck using Google Slides to help guide our experience and set time boundaries. The font selection and color scheme of black, violet, and pink was chosen to match existing AMC designs and NYU branding. The design favors clean and airy assets with thoughtful text elements. I also completed an accessibility check using Grackle to ensure that after the event, all slides shared with attendees would be fully accessible per NYU’s digital accessibility guidelines.

The summit icon is a color-modified version of an icon designed by Beau Wingfield, sourced through the Noun Project (CC BY 3.0), and slide illustrations are from Stories by Freepik.

Attendee Feedback

While there is always room for improvement when planning a comprehensive event such as ours, overall, the summit was positively received by attendees.