Friday, October 3, 2025
Let's Talk Leadership: Wins, Losses, and Everything in Between
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Learning Format: Conversation
There are many ways to lead. Some of us have a go-to style of leadership, and some of us are still trying them on.. Join us to talk leadership styles, and when to use them. This panel brings together four museum leaders to share their stories - the wins, the losses, and everything in between. Join the conversation, and share yours, too. We’ll all leave with ideas, resources, and inspiration.
AI for Museum Professionals: Practical Tools and Smart Solutions
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Learning Format: Active Learning
Curious about AI but unsure how it fits into museum work? This hands-on session explores OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, showcasing how they can streamline tasks like content creation, grant writing, and strategic planning. Whether you’re in a small or large institution, you’ll leave with practical, responsible ways to integrate AI into your workflow—no tech expertise required! Please bring an internet connected device to this hands-on lecture.
Decolonizing Science Narratives in Museums
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Learning Format: Conversation
NAGPRA and Collections: Repatriation-Centered Data Best Practices
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Learning Format: Passive Learning
Exhibit Planning with Mission in Mind: "Big Ideas" Elevate Exhibits
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Learning Format: Active Learning
Designing, updating or evaluating your exhibits? Keep your mission, vision and values close. Embrace the big idea! Join panelists using core documents to say yes - and no - to exhibits, programs and installations. How well do your exhibits serve your target audiences, staff, donors, and the people and places represented by the stories you tell? Do visitors get the message? Join this interactive session to elevate storytelling, hone your "main message" and center your values.
WMA Leadership Reception
INVITATION ONLY
WMA Board Members, NMA Board Members, Program Committee, Host Committee, and Sponsors gather for drink, food, and conversation.
Exhibit Hall Closing Reception
FREE!
Join your colleagues for light refreshments and a visit with our corporate members. The Exhibit Hall Closing Reception is your last chance to bid on silent auction items. All proceeds benefit the WMA's and NMA's scholarship funds to help colleagues attend future Annual Meetings.
Exhibit Hall Networking Break & Poster Session
FREE!
The perennially popular Poster Session provides opportunities for individuals to present their research, ideas, or programs through illustrated and informative posters, and they want your feedback. Come explore projects and initiatives from around the region in an informal setting. Find the list if poster presentations in the WMA2025 Preliminary Program.
WMA Community Lunch
Cost: $60
A celebration of WMA’s 90 years of gathering museum professionals to better our field with a special love letter to WMA by our Board President, Noelle Kahanu, Acting Director, Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program, University of Hawaii at Monoa.
Sponsored by DLR Group
Evening Event: Nevada Museum of Art (WMA @ 90 Party)
$45, includes appetizers and drinks
Celebrate WMA’s 90th anniversary with a party at the Nevada Museum of Art! Join us for a special evening of connecting with colleagues. Food and drink open the party as we enjoy the sunset from the Nightingale Sky Room overlooking the Sierra Nevada. Mark 90 years of WMA gathering museum folks by exploring the galleries, the newly opened Charles and Stacie Mathewson Education + Research Center, and seeing a variety of exhibitions. Thank you for being a part of WMA’s journey moving the museum field forward!