From September through the first week of October, the Employer Relations Team hosted eight virtual Employer Conferences. This year’s conference was designed much differently from previous virtual conferences in answer to feedback from the 2021 conferences.
We expanded the format to include a general session for all attendees and four breakout sessions. At registration, attendees could select from 5 options for their breakout sessions to personalize their agendas with topics they felt were relevant to their responsibilities. The Employer Relations Team processed 1045 registrations, with each attendee receiving a personalized confirmation.
With the expanded programming and navigating virtual breakout rooms, this year’s conference was a successful undertaking with the help of several guest presenters and technical assistance from our Outreach and Education Team. Nationwide, the third-party administrator for the supplemental savings plans that ASRS offers had a team of representatives take turns across the eight conference dates to present in the general session and two Q&A breakout sessions. Broadspire’s Barry O’Dowd reviewed updates and forms in the Long Term Disability breakout sessions. Subject matter experts from the Financial Services Division were invited to present on contribution reporting and the Health Insurance Premium Benefit program. The Employer Relations team also hosted breakout sessions to provide enrollment reminders, updates on some technical issues, and how to best contact the team and answer general questions.
Based on the positive feedback received, these changes were welcomed and appreciated by the majority of those who completed the conference survey. We also received a lot of helpful comments and suggestions that we will again try to accommodate in 2023. For a copy of the presentations used at this year's Employer Conferences, visit our Employer Reference Material page. You'll find the PDFs of each session listed under the Employer Conference section on the right-hand side of the page.
by Genevieve McBride, Employer Relations
