Orlando Conference Highlights

Zack Horn and Daisy Chang

Our record-setting SIOP 2017 conference is just around the corner. Many new opportunities for learning and networking are featured at SIOP 2017, and here’s your guide to the highlights in Orlando! For additional detail on sessions and speakers, see the Conference Program article in the January 2017 TIP, or use SIOP’s searchable program.

Throughout the Conference and Program

• SIOP’s amazing new mobile app keeps you connected to sessions, speakers, and attendees (powered by Whova)
• Over 960 combined sessions and posters!
• Over 620 posters across 19 poster sessions
• Theme Track (Thursday), HR Track (Friday), and Reproducible Research Track (Saturday)
• New “Featured Sessions” provide cutting-edge strategies and tips from Distinguished Award winners
• 62 Reproducible Research (RR) presentations – read more in this issue’s RR article
• 39 sessions with Alternative formats (a new record!)
• 12 Communities of Interest sessions (Asia 3 on Thursday & Friday)
• 9 Master Tutorials
• 4 Debates (360-degree feedback, top performers, survey best practices, employee engagement)

Wednesday

Preregister for the excellent set of preconference activities—including informative and inspirational workshops and consortia. The Newcomer Reception is from 5-6pm in Northern Hemisphere E3-E4 and all are welcome to join us in celebrating the start of the conference at the welcome reception from 6–8 pm at the Swan and Dolphin Pool Deck.

Thursday

Opening Plenary: Kick the day off with a must-see opening plenary session. We’ll cheer for award winners and look to the future of I-O with President Mort McPhail.

The Thursday program starts with a fantastic five-session Theme Track, “Driving Breakthroughs by Anticipating What’s Next: Planning for the Future of I-O” in Southern Hemisphere I. The afternoon includes a Featured Session with award-winning strategies for “Building a Pipeline and Sustaining Success as an I-O Psychologist,” and an Executive Board session detailing how SIOP can engage in workplace research.

Thursday Evening Networking Reception: Enjoy hors d’oeuvres and network with the top poster winners at 6:00pm in Northern Hemisphere CD.

Friday

Join the Frank Landy 5K Fun Run at 7 am on Friday, April 28, 2017. The event will begin outside the Dolphin Hotel, making it easy for you to roll out of bed, run (or walk), and return to the hotel quickly after you’ve finished.

Friday’s many highlights include six Friday Seminars related to using mobile devices in testing and assessment, becoming better-informed consumers of research findings, diversity and defensibility, experience sampling, performance management reform, and converting social media into data.

The HR Practitioner Track in Asia 5 offers multiple top-rated sessions with applied strategies and CE credits. Two more Featured Sessions provide award-winning insights into “The Future of I-O in Practice” and thinking forward as “Distruptors in the Field,” and a Master Collaboration session highlights useful skills we did not learn in graduate school. In addition, four additional Executive Board sessions include a conversation with SIOP’s leadership, building the ROI of I-O through IMPACT initiatives, updates to the revised SIOP Principles, and increasing SIOP’s social media reach. An Alliance session explores ethical, rigorous, and relevant research.

At the end of Friday’s program in Pacific BC, you’ll find an edgy new event titled “Shaken & Stirred,” which asks 15 thought leaders in I-O to provide insightful and entertaining answers to the simple question, “What if…?”

Saturday

Saturday will close the conference programming just as strongly as it started, so make sure to stay the whole day! A new Reproducible Research Track in Asia 4 is featuring some of the highest-rated sessions at SIOP this year.  Two Alliance sessions target the impact of technology on international recruitment and selection, as well as global contributions to 100 years of research in I-O.  The final Executive Board session will focus on understanding I-O education and training from an international perspective.

4:30: Closing Plenary with keynote address by NASA Astronaut Dr. Stanley Love. Who better to help us gain perspective on the future than an accomplished astronaut!

6:00: Closing Reception: Make memories with your friends over amazing food and music at the Cuban-inspired Havana Nights Reception! This is a reception you won’t want to miss!