History

1975. The first National Conference was held at the Kellogg Center on the East Lansing campus of Michigan State University in September, 1975. A total of 29 participants from both management development and industrial relations centers attended.
1976. The second meeting was held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1977. The third Conference was held at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. For the first time, a survey was sent asking potential attendees what they would like to discuss, share about their own operations, questions they would like to ask others, and whether or not they would be attending. Seventy-seven completed surveys were received. 110 people registered for the Conference and another 22 staff members from Arizona State University’s Center for Executive Development attended.
1978. The University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University decided to join forces and co-sponsor the Conference. As the result of a fine program and sound planning, a total of 100 persons attended the meeting in Richmond. Since the program was not held on either of the campuses, administrators from the two host centers conducted tours of their campuses for those in attendance.
1979. The University of Denver, Colorado State University, and the University of Colorado co-sponsored the Conference. More than 80 persons attended the meeting called “Colorado Gold” which was held at the College Inn on the campus of the University of Colorado, Boulder.
1980. For the first time the Conference was held during Thanksgiving week on the campus of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
1981. The American Center for Management Development which was owned and operated by former college center administrators scheduled the first Florida Conference in Sarasota. The meeting was planned and as in the past the speakers were from colleges and universities participating in the Conference. The American Center was asked to continue to handle the operation of the Conference.

1985-88. The Conference has been held during Thanksgiving week at Innisbrook, FL. In 1988 the American Center was dissolved.

1989-Today. ProEd Corporation, managed by Phil Graf took over the logistical planning for and operation of the Annual National Conferences based on program developed by the Advisory Board from presentation proposals each year. The conference was held predominantly in Florida and alternated between Florida and Arizona from 2000. In 2016 Eckerd College co-hosted the Conference conducting two days  of keynote and concurrent sessions on-campus. In 2017 the conference went to Texas for the first time since 1981.  In 2018 the conference was in Orlando — at Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College. In 2019 it returned to Austin, TX co-hosted by LBJ School of Public Affairs. This year it moves to the Atlantic Coast of Florida co-hosted by the Executive Education Center of Florida Atlantic University.