NAEP New York Tenative Agenda

Transition to Lunch

Lead with heart. Inspire with Purpose

Big Z’s Hangout at Lake Placid Lanes https://www.bigzsatlakeplacidlanes.com/

Strategies to Keep Your Internal Engine Running Smoothly. This exciting program invites the audience to discover and maximize their own personal potential by learning how to gain some fuel for their internal gas tank. “Don’t let life's little roadblocks keep you stuck on the side of the road, Come have some fun and learn how to push your pedal to the metal” While traveling on this journey, Brian shares his test-driven and proven road-worthy strategies for successful leadership and personal growth. Life is a journey — enjoy the ride!

In today's rapidly evolving higher education environment, procurement teams are under pressure to do more with less. This session presents a real-world case study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), demonstrating how procurement leaders leveraged data to streamline processes, improve performance, and strengthen campus partnerships. Learn practical strategies for driving efficiency, tracking performance metrics, addressing campus feedback, and applying automation and AI tools within procurement workflows. Attendees will leave with actionable insights and tools to enhance procurement operations and better align with institutional financial goals.

This presentation aims to guide stakeholders and customers through the process of purchasing software in higher education. From building a "Must-Have List," to best practices and pitfalls to avoid. With emerging technologies and AI, multiple entities are involved in solidifying a safe and compliant software solution on campus.

Practical strategies and use of technology for creating value and maintaining service levels—even as budgets and headcounts shrink.

It's not a typo. When you see co in any word, it means you can’t do it alone. So, lets lean into the co-llaboration required in public procurement. Take charge of what you can control to foster a collaborative culture. As a procurement professional, you have a lot of demands, and your end-user teams don't always share the same priorities. However, procuring the needs of your agency is challenging enough without this shared understanding. Join forces with your internal customers to become better buyers together. This session provides insights to sidestep common communication pitfalls and achieve mutual success.

We have to write to do our jobs, but most of us don’t get trained on how to write for work. We rely on what we learned in school or write how we speak (even though writing and speaking are completely different types of communication). We might also try to imitate our coworkers, but they don’t necessarily know how to write for work either. We’re all lost and making everyone else’s job harder. The key is this: We have to write for how people *read*, which means writing messages that are skimmable and purpose-driven with formatting that makes it easy for the reader to find important information. Let’s make everyone’s professional lives better by writing messages that help us work less (faster, easier, more effectively), not more.

You write a lot for work, but you're a professional who writes, not a professional writer. While most of your writing gets results, sometimes people misunderstand you or don't respond or respond in strange or incomplete ways. This session will help you think about and practice writing not just from your perspective but even more from the perspective of the person who reads your message. Because when we craft messages that are easy for other people to read, they respond the way we want and take the actions we expect. This workshop will give you five simple tricks that you can put into practice right away to ensure that your messages at work get read and acted on.

Happy Hour 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Enjoy a Night in Lake Placid

Ready to reclaim hours of your week? Discover how free AI tools are transforming daily procurement at institutions nationwide. This session reveals practical applications of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot that procurement professionals are using right now to cut research time, streamline RFP development, and uncover hidden insights. Whether you're analyzing spend data, preparing for tough negotiations, or trying to stay on top of market intelligence, these accessible platforms can amplify your expertise without requiring new software purchases or IT support. You'll walk away with ready-to-use prompts, real examples, and the confidence to start implementing AI tools immediately - regardless of your current tech comfort level.