Office of Conferences is 'one-stop shop' for visitors


by Staci I. Shipp
Though the academic year will soon come to a close, the Vanderbilt campus won't be a quiet place this summer. More than 7,000 people of nearly all ages are expected to attend conferences at the University ranging from the Special Olympics to a Nashville chess clinic.

The Office of Conferences provides a convenient "one-stop shop" through which Vanderbilt organizations and not-for-profit groups visiting Nashville for educational purposes may make arrangements to stay overnight in a residence hall, reserve conference rooms for meetings, eat in the dining halls and have free access to the Student Recreational Center. Although scheduling arrangements for more than 50 groups this summer, the largest group ever, is a big job, Director Libby Magill and her assistant, Donna Bedwell, take it all in stride.

The conference schedule, which kicks off the Friday following Commencement, will bring visitors with varied interests, professions, ages and nationalities, including private high school headmasters from across the country, the American and Russian Youth Orchestra, a Chicago banking administrators institute, a group which assists people with hearing impairments, church groups, overnight football and soccer camps, Elderhostel and many more.

Magill takes pride in providing visitors hassle-free planning for these events as well as an opportunity to experience Vanderbilt first-hand.

"We're here to assist and serve whether it's the on-campus community or the community at large. We're here to make everyone's visit comfortable. That's why a one-stop shop is so positive and so helpful because the client's legwork is minimal," said Magill. She hires a trained staff of Vanderbilt students, from rising sophomores to graduate students, to provide directions and help visitors during their stay.

"I am still not sure that 'everyone' knows that this office is here to assist them. Many faculty and staff would probably like to put a program together, in their field of expertise, but do not want to deal with the headaches of the 'planning of details,'" she said. "All they do is provide the program. We do everything else for them."

The success of Vanderbilt's Office of Conferences was Magill's primary goal when she arrived at the University from having served as conference manager of Clemson University. Prior to her arrival, a conference office did not exist at Vanderbilt. Persons wanting to stay on campus had to make all the arrangements themselves.

In 1990 the University hosted about 3,700 guests. Through Magill's efforts, however, the number of campus visitors has increased each summer to the nearly 7,400 expected this year.

"I am quite proud that this office has been able to grow-small steps as it may seem-but we have grown," said Magill. "Also, we are reaching out to many different areas. That is evident from our schedule and folks that I am dealing with ... nationwide and sometimes internationally." The office has already been approached to host the 2001 International Boy Scout meeting.

"This is an outreach program. We're able to bring them to campus and show them our residence halls, our academic facilities and our meeting facilities," said Magill. "We want the reputation from this to go out that our University is very warm and inviting."

Magill said the program also acts as a recruiting tool. "We're hoping whether it's a good experience by a grandparent or a parent or a faculty adviser or a high school adviser, they'll go back and say, 'We hope you'll look at Vanderbilt. I had a wonderful summer there.'"

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This document created May 22, 1997
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