APO celebrates 25th annual convention
Educational sessions and networking for activity professionals highlight conference
Wednesday October 28, 2009 -- Deron Hamel
COLLINGWOOD, Ont. - The Activity Professionals of Ontario (APO) celebrated its 25th anniversary last week with a record number of attendees and a myriad of educational sessions and motivational presentations aimed at enhancing best practices for activity managers.

The sessions included, amongst others, information about implementing the Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS 2.0), volunteer retention and restorative dining. There were also keynote speakers who delivered motivational presentations to the 307 attendees.

The conference also provided activity professionals across Ontario an opportunity to network with one another and learn about new innovations related to the long-term care and retirement-home sectors.

Convention chair Judy O’Neill notes the importance of the conference and the value it brings to activity professionals.

“We’re always around people and promoting activities and fun and being involved, but the (challenge) is we don’t have a large support system,” she explains.

“Quite often we work alone or with one other partner in the home, so when we come here it’s very refreshing for us to talk to other people and feed off of each other.”

Aside from the workshops and networking opportunities, O’Neill says the conference is also a forum where activity professionals are provided with inspiration from motivational speakers.

This year’s conference featured keynote presentations from Rosita Hall, whose website describes her as a “professional speaker, author, motivator, coach and change train engineer,” and Jayne Harvey, the CEO of health-care consulting organization FCS International.

O’Neill says these speakers are a vital part of every conference.

“We, ourselves, sometimes need to be motivated,” she says. “We’re motivators in the homes (but) there comes a point where (activity professionals) need to be motivated.”

As a testament to the success of the conference throughout the past 25 years, O’Neill says attendance has swelled since the first one was held in Peterborough in 1985.

“We have more than tripled our attendance since the first conference,” she says, adding she hopes to see attendance continue to increase.

The conference ran Oct. 21-23 at Blue Mountain Inn in Collingwood, Ont., and was titled Celebrating Silver — Achieving Gold.

More information about the APO can be found by visiting the organization’s website.

As an activity professional, what did you learn at the APO conference? If you have a story you would like to share, please contact the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.

If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.