NIIC 2011 - Behind the Scenes

Photo: 

Photo copyright Jay Trinidad http://jaytrinidad.photodeck.com/

Last week, OneAmerica welcomed over 750 people from 38 states and 8 countries to Seattle for the 4th annual National Immigrant Integration Conference. The event was a huge success, with advocates, policymakers, educators, and direct service providers engaging in dynamic discussions and sharing best practices over immigrant integration.

But OneAmerica couldn't have made an event of this magnitude sing the way it did without the generous contribution of our 65 volunteers! Our amazing volunteer team - coming from as far away as Oregon, California and Arkansas (yes, Arkansas) - included students, educators, nonprofit folks, retirees, and advocates. They helped organize registration files, take notes, gather questions, take photos, shoot video, flag problems, manage laptops, handle mics and translation equipment, and, of course, load gigantic marimbas into a terrifying freight elevator. Smooth as butter.

One volunteer emailed OneAmerica staffer and volunteer coordinator extraordinaire Becky Pogany about her experience:

Thank you for the opportunity to volunteer!  I had such a positive experience at the conference and had a wonderful experience serving as a volunteer.  The conference was very exciting and inspiring for me and came during the perfect time of my graduate education.

If you want to see some of the wonderful people who made NIIC 2011 so special, visit OneAmerica's Flickr page and enjoy some of the incredible photos taken by Jay Trinidad and Jack Storms, who both volunteered their truly amazing skills and vision to documenting this rare event.

Take a look at the websites of these two photographers to witness what they can do and consider reaching out to them for your next event. If you purchase any conference photos from Jay in the next month, he has generously offered to donate half of these proceeds to OneAmerica!

OneAmerica is lucky to have such strong volunteer support to help host such a polished, professional event. Thank you all!

NIIC 2011 participants. Photo courtesy Jack Storms http://www.stormsphoto.com/