Wednesday, October 11, 2006

7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.	Registration
8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.	Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.	Conference Welcome: THE MINE OWNERS
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.	Plenary Session: THE JEWELRY MAKERS Learn from this panel as they address their experiences in accomplishing their work. Issues and topics to be addressed by this panel include: Do's and Don'ts of an LMI Shop, The Best Advice I Can Give, and Worst Case Scenarios: Horror Stories You Don't Want to Happen to You. Be prepared to come with questions for this experienced and knowledgeable panel. Moderator: Dorothy Stites, Director, Labor Market Information Services, Kansas Department of Labor Presenters: Alexandra Hall, Director, Labor Market Information, Colorado Department of Labor & Employment Todd Younkin, Director, Research and Analysis, Montana Department of Labor and Industry George Nazer, Director, Economic & Labor Market Information, New Hampshire Department of Employment Security
10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.	Break
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.	Plenary Session: Assuring the Best - Internal Performance Management This presentation will be an overview and presentation of methods and tools developed by Washington State's Labor Market Information and Economic Analysis Division to ASSAY staff internal performance in meeting deliverables and requirements. An application for tracking customer requests and incorporating them into the performance system will be demonstrated. Greg Weeks, Director, Labor Market and Economic Analysis, Washington Employment Security Department Performance and Accountability for LMI in Washington State
11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.	Lunch On Your Own
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.	Plenary Session: Legislative Outlook and Federal Initiatives and Budget CLARITY: A session to provide Clarity on BLS & ETA expectations, initiatives and funding. Moderator: Mary Sue Vickers, LMI and Research Director, NASWA Presenters: John "Jack" Galvin, Associate Commissioner, Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS budget and initiatives Janet Sten, Chief, Division of System Support, Employment and Training Administration
2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Break
3:00 p.m. to 3:55 p.m.	VALUE Breakout Sessions Education Rocks! The Education Rocks! concept is a method of packaging and delivering career-planning resources for use by career guidance professionals. Education Rocks! gets the attention of young people and quickly makes the point that "the difference between a career and a J-O-B," is a plan. The career planning program is centered around labor market information resources presented in an interesting way to connect with youth and hard to serve clients. This session includes a scripted PowerPoint presentation of this program. Presenter: Faye Duzan, WIA Initiatives Coordinator, Georgia Department of Labor Benefits Survey Data - Customized for the Wyoming Healthcare Commission Wyoming began conducting a benefits survey in 1999 and has worked cooperatively with Nebraska and South Dakota to develop a common survey approach. The project took on added significance when Wyoming's Health Department and Health Care Commission took up the task of developing strategies to insure the uninsured. Largely because of their interest, the Wyoming benefits survey is now a state funded initiative. The Benefits Consortium initiative represented a great opportunity to incorporate the concepts of the National Compensation Survey (NCS) into Wyoming's benefits mail survey strategy. Having staff from NCS walk Wyoming through the BLS processes gave them an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the way total compensation might be measured at the state and sub-state level. Since its inception, Wyoming's benefits survey has been conducted on a quarterly basis. With the current discussions related to the potential merger of OES and NCS, this session will allow attendees to draw from Wyoming's experience and understand some of the complexities of the potential merger. Presenter: Tom Gallagher, Manager, Planning & Research, Wyoming Department of Labor Forging Research Partnerships with Higher Education Learn more about the needs of higher education for labor market and workforce information and how LMI shops are forging productive research partnerships with higher education and community colleges. Wage records provide a powerful source of data for education and training institutions to gauge labor market outcomes of their graduates. There is growing interest in combining student data with wage records so that we can learn more about how skills development impacts labor market experience. Hear from a leader in higher education as well as from LMI shops about new strategies and existing projects where LMI shops and higher education entities are effectively collaborating. We will also share prospects for a national demonstration project that will provide further opportunities for higher education and LMI shops to work together. Presenters: Hans P. L'Orange, Director of Data and Information Management, State Higher Education Executive Officers, Boulder, Colorado John Dorrer, Director of Labor Market Information Services, Maine Department of Labor
4:05 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.	Breakout Sessions Repeated
5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.	Experience the RARE opportunity to visit the William J. Clinton Presidential Center. The evening will include a tour of the Center from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.	After the tour we will enjoy dinner at Café 42, located on the northern edge of the Center. Café 42 offers guests sweeping views of the Arkansas River and the 1899 Rock Island railroad bridge that will be renovated into a pedestrian bridge crossing the Arkansas River.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.	Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.	Plenary Session: Our Customers WEIGH In - How Customers Use Labor Market Information Included in this session will be a discussion on economic and state revenue forecasting systems based on LMI data. This panel discussion will also include information on Arkansas' High Demand Targeted Jobs System and a new program called "Career Pathways to Occupational & Training Initiatives." Panel members will discuss the uses of the pathways initiative in the education world. Moderator: Al Crumby, LMI Division Chief, Arkansas Department of Workforce Services Panel Members John Shelnutt, Ph.D., Administrator, Economic Analysis and Tax Research, Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration Applications of LMI Data in Arkansas: More Than You Think Susan Prater, Career & Technical Education, Arkansas Department of Workforce Education Ron White, Program Operations Manager, Occupational Career Information, Arkansas Department of Workforce Services Belinda Hodges, Research Project Analyst, Occupational Career Information, Arkansas Department of Workforce Services Steve Lease, Director of Workforce Training, Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges
10:00 to 10:30 a.m.	Break
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.	Plenary Session: Leveraging Resources Leveraging resources is a reoccurring mantra relating to expectations of labor market and workforce information departments. Based on an inventory of state LMI departments, hear some practical advice from colleagues on the types of agencies and projects commonly associated with leveraging, the successes of those with established leveraging practices and the challenges and limitations of leveraged funds. Presenters: Todd Younkin, Bureau Chief, Research and Analysis, Workforce Services Division, Montana Department of Labor and Industry Leveraging Funds A report on the current state of identifying opportunities and using non-USDOL funding sources for Labor Market Information activities. Rebecca Rust, LMI Director, Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation Leveraging Resources: The Florida Experience
11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.	Lunch on Your Own
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.	Plenary Session This panel will highlight a series of creative strategies for development of the MINERS within Labor Market Divisions, including Attracting, Retaining and Rewarding Top Talent while coping with an environment of civil service and tight budget constraints. Succession Planning for Growth and Development by identifying, nurturing and promoting talent for the next generation of leadership will be discussed. The Arkansas Department of Workforce Services initiated a leadership development program two years ago. The first class graduated in July 2006, and the second class is just beginning. Hear from the driving force behind this initiative on how leaders are being prepared to take the reins as large numbers of managers are retiring. The final topic for this panel is Linking with the Academics to achieve synergies through collaboration with state academic resources. Moderator: Peter A. Neenan, Director, Labor Market Information Division, Employment Security Commission of North Carolina Presenters: Roger Therrien, Director of Research, Connecticut Department of Labor Employee Retention...A Core Business Strategy! Artee Williams, Director, Arkansas Department of Workforce Services Arkansas Department of Workforce Services' Leadership Development Program Greg Weeks, Director, Labor Market and Economic Analysis, Washington Employment Security Department Staff Recruitment and Retention for LMI in Washington State
2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Break
3:00 p.m. to 3:55 p.m.	PURITY Breakout Sessions shOW-IT: Industry and Occupational Analysis Tool "'ShOW-IT' is an acronym for Shift-share Occupational Workforce and Industrial Tools and is an extensive database and reporting application for economic analysis. This program allows the user to investigate and analyze employment data for industries over a 15 year period and for occupations over a 5 year period. In addition to neatly organizing raw data for both industrial and occupational employment, it also evaluates and reports complex calculations including location quotients, shift-share components and newly developed indicators of relative industrial and occupational performance. The ShOW-IT application is designed for use by professionals who will benefit from readily available economic data ranging from the most basic employment and wage information for occupations and industries to very powerful, in-depth analysis. Presenters: Nelse Grundvig, Economist, Labor Market Information, Employment Security Commission of North Carolina Kevin Hoffman, Labor Market Analyst, Labor Market Information, Employment Security Commission of North Carolina The Report Generator: A New Skills-Based Employment Projections System Module Serving Economic Developers, WIBs and Educators This new tool fills a major gap in our projections' arsenal by providing easy-to- use functionality that allows users to: *Determine the presence and level of skills in the current workforce; *Project skill needs over various time frames and geographic areas; and *Measure the gap between projected skill needs and current skills. The Report Generator offers a new ability for the LMI Divisions to provide their WIBS and other customers with valuable information. Presenter: Alexandra Hall, LMI Director, Employment and Training, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Progress Report on CES Restructuring Effort and the Merger of CES & QCEW Publication Streams Two workgroups of the Workforce Information Council (WIC) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are identifying ways in which to restructure the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program as an alternative to the BLS CES centralization proposal. This session will bring attendees up-to-date on the workgroups' progress to keep CES estimation and benchmarking in the States by identifying reductions in the CES state and area operations budget and meeting the BLS need for a "sum of states" solution. The second part of the session will focus on the proposal to merge the publication streams of the CES and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) programs. Attendees will be given the latest details on what this would mean for both programs and for the states. Presenters: Graham Slater, Administrator for Research, Oregon Employment Department Rebecca Rust, Director, Labor Market Statistics, Florida Agency for Workforce Innovations Patricia Getz, Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics
4:05 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.	Breakout Sessions Repeated

Friday, October 13, 2006

8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.	Coffee
8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.	Plenary Session: How does it Work in a Natural Disaster? Presenter: Michael "Dino" DeMarte, Director, Research & Statistics Louisiana Department of Labor
9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.	NASWA LMI Awards Program Enjoy brunch and learn from the BRILLIANCE of your awarding winning colleagues.
11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.	Wrap Up/Action Items
11:30 a.m.	Adjourn