The full meeting agenda, as well as several session previews, can help attendees decide what sessions they want to attend.
Session previews
Recently, Municipal Association Executive Director Todd Glover and Deputy Executive Director Jake Broom joined a podcast to discuss many of the Annual Meeting sessions, including those on the upcoming election for governor, social media and civility, as well as what elected officials need to know about the SC Freedom of Information Act.
One of the preconference sessions at this year’s meeting on July 16 will feature a walking tour in the nearby City of Simpsonville.
Simpsonville has seen numerous transformative projects in recent years, including a city-county partnership that created a new municipal courthouse, the Simpsonville Arts Center, created from a revitalized historic school, as well as the city’s new City Hall and police and fire stations. The preconference sessions are limited to registered attendees, and the Simpsonville tour is limited to registered municipal officials.
A former member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Alberta, Canada, Griffiths has focused in his retirement from politics on building communities and helping them find their pathways to economic success and long-term growth.
In addition to the general sessions for all attendees, the meeting will feature numerous concurrent sessions, where those attending can choose between one of two sessions for a given block of time. These will address everything from legislative advocacy to employment law, cybersecurity and parliamentary procedures.
One concurrent session will highlight a frequent topic of discussion in municipal government — the three forms of municipal government established in South Carolina law. The panel discussion, “Does the Form of Government Really Matter?,” will include three mayors representing the three forms — Elgin Mayor Melissa Emmons, mayor-council form; Sumter Mayor David Merchant, council-manager form; and Manning Mayor Julia Nelson, council form.
The Annual Meeting also offers an exhibit hall, where vendors will showcase products and services ranging from accounting to engineering, information technology, utilities, parks development, staffing and holiday decorations, among others.
VC3, the Association’s technology partner, will host quick “Tech Talks” throughout the meeting on technology topics like data backups, IT budgeting, website accessibility compliance and artificial intelligence applications.
The “Purchasing Made Simple” sessions will cover topics involved with the City Connect Market, the Municipal Association’s cooperative purchasing program partnership with HGACBuy and CarolinaBUY. These procurement-focused sessions will examine HVAC, signage, emergency equipment and public works equipment.
Use the Municipal Association’s app for conference details
The Municipal Association of SC app offers plenty of information for the Annual Meeting. Attendees can use the app to plan which of the various concurrent sessions they want to attend. It also provides users with information on speakers, exhibitors and shuttles.
Users should note that the app only refreshes when they navigate through it, selecting links. If they have not navigated through the app since a previous meeting, then old meeting information may populate when they open the app. They can correct this by selecting links to make the app update itself.
Download the app from either the App Store or Google Play.