How do you engage with others in your field? Are you looking for colleagues doing similar work or help advocating for your museum? Your state museum association provides a framework of connectivity you can tap into. Every western state has an active association with a mission to help your museum thrive. Join us to explore how engaging with your state association benefits you professionally and builds a stronger community. We are stronger together.

Evaluation helps museums strengthen internal practices and remain responsive to their communities. This session introduces practical evaluation approaches that can be integrated into everyday museum work. In the first half, professional evaluators and museum staff share foundational concepts and tools they use in their own roles. The second half is an open forum where participants can ask questions, discuss current projects, and explore strategies for implementing evaluation in their own institutions.

As civic space dwindles and attacks on truth, culture, and fundamental freedoms escalate, this is a clarion call for museums to show up with renewed purpose and moral clarity. How do we protect civic space, nurture public trust, and lead with radical care, courageous truth-telling, and a vision for a more just and connected future? If museums are a core civic infrastructure, how do we fully embrace that responsibility—defending cultural memory and strengthening dialogue across difference?

Inventory is crucial for stewardship, but it can be daunting. Learn to transform your collection inventory from a compliance task into a strategic tool for advocacy, accessibility, and institutional leverage. Four collections stewards from municipal, county, and state organizations will share practical, scalable processes and successful outcomes for initiating or refining your own inventory project.

It is no secret that federal funding cuts and the actions of the current administration have the field making difficult decisions and grappling with the uncertainty of the time. As individuals, we might not have all the answers now, but we are not alone. This session invites participants to engage with the question of "what can the museum field do now and in the next two years to prepare for the unknown future?" Participants will go through asset mapping and collective brainstorming of actions – small and large – that help us ASPIRE to be prepared for what may come.

Artificial Intelligence is a creative tool that, like scissors, must be handled with care to avoid the pointy bits. Learning from a legal expert, a reluctant adopter, and a professional actively using it, this session will demystify AI with a brief intro to its history, legal challenges, and as a tool that can support human creativity. Find out how a monkey, alien, and ghost influenced AI's legal use, and explore museum scenarios in small group discussions.

Museums play a crucial role in contributing to individual and collective well-being, connecting people and enhancing social resilience. This interactive session combines rapid Ignite-style presentations showcasing a variety of wellness-focused museum initiatives including creative aging, social connection, and nature and wellness programs. The session will then transition into a World Cafe discussion, where participants will explore programming, partnerships, and resources, while brainstorming ways to enhance and/or build wellness programming at their own museums.

In 2022, the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement (CCE) decided to integrate various state collections into one central database. With a CMS vendor selected, CCE began the ambitious task of migrating data from three major collections. This session explores the project's successes and challenges, providing essential insights and practical advice for other institutions aiming to consolidate their historical and cultural assets into a unified, accessible public resource.

You don't need a title to lead. This session brings together three museum professionals at different stages of their leadership journeys — from influencing without authority to running an organization. Through honest conversation and guided reflection, you'll explore your own leadership style, discover what it looks like to lead from where you are right now, and walk away with real tools to grow yourself and the people around you.