AIIM Conference | AIIM Community
We introduced something new to The AIIM Conference in 2016, an element of social responsibility. As the VP of Events here at AIIM, it was incredibly important to me that we give something to a charity local to our host city of New Orleans that our attendees had created.
A few years back, I had attended a holiday party where we were all given a pair of TOMS shoes to decorate. We were given a plethora of paints, markers, stickers, and glitter to get creative with. The shoes included a range of youth sizes, and you chose to decorate for a boy or girl. Later, all the decorated shoes were donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Washington, DC.
Why TOMS? For each pair of shoes you purchase, TOMS donates a pair of shoes to a child in a third world country. Double-delight! Shoes for local kids and shoes for kids worldwide.
Fast forward to planning AIIM16. We knew we wanted to bring creativity and charity together. Lightbulb-moment! Let's purchase a bunch of TOMS shoes and do this at our conference party. We'd be able to harness the creativity of our attendees (and boy, those designs show we had this in abundance), and provide for some local children in need.
We donated 200 pairs of TOMS to Raintree Children and Family Services, who work with foster children and their families in New Orleans. Whitney Armentor, Raintree's representative, very kindly accepted these from us during the closing keynote on Thursday, April 28.
Words can’t express how proud I am of our community for all the effort and enthusiasm for this idea. Who knew we had such amazing artists in our community! Thank you so much. You guys rock.
This was the first time we incorporated charity into The AIIM Conference, but it will not be the last. We'll continue this new tradition at AIIM17, March 14-16, Orlando, Florida. Stay tuned.
