Here are some fun facts about your 2020 CSMFO Conference experience:

• 18,500 – Meals you helped provide for vulnerable kids in school
• 29%- Increase in 2020 conference attendance over our prior 2019 record of 1,551
• 455 – First time attendees at this year’s conference
• 75 – Total hours of Conference content to support you, your CPE, and your agencies
• 138 – Keynote and session speakers and presenters

About your bag from FEED.

CSMFO Partnered with FEED and other agencies under President Steve Heidi’s conference theme of “CSMFO Gives Back!”

You might have participated in giving back by donating at the CSMFO Booth to CSMFO’s O’Dell Scholarship Fund (that provides scholarships to California State University students) or Orangewood Foundation, that supports foster youth).  Or you might have posted a note on Tyler Technologies board where they donated $100 to Orangewood for each note.

Or you might have joined in the virtual steps challenge to remind attendees of how important it is to take care of your own health to really support others.

But everyone at the Conference played a direct role in an impactful way through the CSMFO Conference bag by FEED.  Each of the 1,850 conference bags provided 10 school meals to the most vulnerable kids in schools across the globe.  FEED is an impact driven lifestyle brand with an enduring principle at the heart of what they do—that people’s choices of what to buy and wear have the power to change the world.  Since 2007, they have leveraged product sales to provide 111,350,327 meals.

2,005 opportunities to swipe right and connect together

While President Heidi, Past President Joan Michaels-Aguilar, and others were sure our 2020 CSMFO would set a new attendance record, welcoming 2,005 attendees was beyond everyone’s expectations.  We’ve only seen annual increases like this before in 2012 and 2016.  Oh yeah, those were also both Anaheim years.  Perhaps there’s some magic around Anaheim???

But, what is exciting is these “Anaheim spike” years typically raise attendance levels for future conferences.  For example, after the 2012 Anaheim conference, the 2013 Oakland conference saw a net gain of 151 new attendees or 24% over the 2011 conference.  And for the 2017 Sacramento conference, we saw a net gain of 202 new attendees or 22% over the 2015 conference.

For more about our 2020 Conference, be on the lookout for our new conference edition supplement of CSMFO News.  This conference yearbook will highlight the wonderful moments and impactful experiences of our 2020 Conference, Yesterday, Tomorrow and Finance.

Paying it forward in 2021, CSMFO’s San Jose Conference (Feb 16^th-19^th)

Our 2021 Conference will be in the heart of Silicon Valley, in the 10^th largest City in the United States.  The downtown San Jose location is already presenting itself to be full of opportunities for next year’s attendees.

We are excited that attendees will find all the general sessions in one large, single floor area. We also hope everyone will enjoy how much natural sunlight floods into the expansive hallways.  And the conference host committee is already having fun envisioning unique conference experiences including a possible CSMFO activity zone.

Next year’s attendees can expect a collision of new tech with old school, professional relationship and career building, with an emphasis on paying it forward for our members and communities.

I love you and I’m humbled to…

I wanted to squeeze in a moment to say thank you and to express my deep gratitude and love to my Mom (Belle) and Dad (Tony), and my family (Laurie with Kaitlynn and Kirsten) who were able to support me in Anaheim.

My parents immigrated from the Azores islands with the literal “suitcase and one-way ticket” Dr. Disneyland Jeffrey Barnes told us about.  But where Walt had $40, my parents were in debt to those who sponsored them.  Despite their struggles, they raised my brother Steve and I in a rich community of family, love, unending support, joy for life, and gratitude for what we had.  More importantly, they instilled in us a strong service mindset through their living form of “paying it forward,” as they volunteered so much of their time to other causes.

I’m grateful for their support and my family’s support.  But I know I’m not alone in this.  Our day jobs often pull us deeper in than maybe they really deserve, and that puts pressure and stress on our family networks.  We all owe them a daily “thank you” for all the sacrifices we impose on them and for their support and trust in us.  It really does take a collective effort to thrive.