CCA Institute
2022 CCA Institute * June 6-9 * Santa Fe, NM
This June, the Cooperative Communicators Association invites you to a land of vibrant color, culture, and community. A land that marches to the beat of its own drum, with cultural roots that span thousands of years. A land that will open doors for you, doors to untapped inspiration and creativity.
Join us June 6-9, 2022, for the CCA Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the breathtakingly beautiful El Dorado Hotel and Spa.
We’re excited to present you with an agenda full of exciting opportunities to expand your professional skills, enhance your personal growth, network with your fellow cooperative communicators, and cultivate lasting friendships amidst the beautiful Santa Fe landscape.
Whether you’re a CCA veteran or a first timer, there’s something for you in Santa Fe!
Come for the beauty, experience the culture, and soak up the creativity. We look forward to seeing you there!
Teri Ditsch and Michelle Geans
2022 CCA Institute Co-chairs
Click Here to view Sponsorship Opportunities
ELDORADO HOTEL & SPA
Address: 309 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Hotel Phone #: 505-988-4455
Room Rate: $155.00 plus tax (currently 13.875%) and $20 amenity fee
Group Code: Cooperative Communicators Association – CCA Institute
Check in: 4:00 PM; Check-out: 11:00 AM
Hotel Cut Off Date: May 6, 2022
The Eldorado Hotel & Spa, a luxury Santa Fe hotel that celebrates Southwestern design with bold new expression of creativity and New Mexican culture. Featuring 219 well-appointed suites and guest rooms, including a Presidential suite, an award-winning spa, casual fine dining, wedding chapel, and the most exclusive rooftop pool. The hotel is ideally located in the heart of downtown, just two blocks from the historic Santa Fe Plaza, Palace of the Governors, and within walking distance of Canyon Road arts district.
Click here to make your room reservation today!
*Rates and reservations guaranteed through end of business day on Friday, May 6, 2022*
Travel Information
Santa Fe Municipal/Regional Airport (SAF) is located just southwest of the city and provides commercial airline service by American Eagle Airlines with daily flights to and from Santa Fe and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Los Angeles (LAX). Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) is approximately 60 miles from the host hotel.
For Santa Fe Airport car/transportation information, click here. Note: Car service times may be limited. Reservations are highly recommended.
For Albuquerque travel and transportation information, click here.
Parking
Valet parking, fee: $30 USD daily
Covid-19 Policy & Protocols
Eldorado Hotel & Spa has always taken great pride in their cleanliness and will continue to improve the quality and standards for guests during these times. Heritage Safe Escape reflects their enhanced cleaning procedures and personal protective equipment program to protect guests and staff. To learn more about their Safe Escape policy click here.
Monday, June 6 |
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8:00-2:00 | Board Meeting (Zia A) |
3:00-5:00 | Registration (Anasazi Ballroom Foyer) |
4:00-5:00 | CCA New Member Orientation (Zia B) |
5:00-6:00 | Business Meeting (Anasazi North) |
6:00-7:00 | Welcome Reception (Outdoor Pool Deck) |
7:00 p.m. | Group Dinners |
Tuesday, June 7 |
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Breakfast on Your Own | |
7:45-8:30 | Registration (Zia A) |
8:30-8:40 | Institute Kick-Off / Announcements (Zia A) |
8:40-9:45 | General Session 1 (Anasazi Ballroom) Presentation Transformation: The Art and Science of Influencing Others (Jeannie Clinkenbeard, FCCS) |
Are you responsible for designing compelling presentations, but not sure where to start, or how to organize your information? Do you tend to dump everything you know on your audience and risk overwhelming them instead of influencing them? In this hands-on session you’ll learn how to apply simple brain science that helps you create audience-focused messages. You’ll practice a Presentation Pyramid tool that will simplify and speed up your design process. Focus on what your audience needs to hear to take the action you want them to take. | |
9:45-10:45 | General Session 2 (Anasazi Ballroom) The Power of Communicators to Drive Strategy (Ann Kafer, GROWMARK) |
Once upon a time a Co-op charted its course for future success. Its leaders determined the most important things to accomplish to fulfill its aspiration. Its top-notch communicators launched many (really good) communications efforts to employees, member-customers, and other stakeholders. It was a beautiful thing until everyone sunk into the slop of the urgent and lost momentum. Now, everyone is frustrated. Sound familiar? Executives want to communicate well – especially about strategy. Communicators want to communicate well – especially about strategy. Yet both groups are often frustrated. Why? This session will address the realities from both sides and offer practical tips to ease frustration and improve understanding. | |
10:45-11:00 | Morning Break |
11:00-12:00 | General Session 3 (Anasazi Ballroom) Create a Culture of Engaged Leaders and Ignite Their Impact in the Workplace (Chellie Phillips, Chellie Phillips-Successfully Ever After) |
What if I told you there was a portion of your business you could develop that would help you outperform your competitors by 202%? By investing in your people and providing opportunities they need to grow as leaders, you can build a company that thrives. But the reverse happens when those opportunities aren’t offered on a level playing field. Unengaged workers cost you not only in lost productivity, but they can cause a ripple effect throughout your organization. In this session you’ll learn techniques to move employees from simply “putting in their time” to becoming brand warriors for you. | |
12:15-2:15 | CCA Communications Contest & Honors Luncheon (Zia A-C) |
2:00-3:30 | General Session 4 (Anasazi Ballroom) Real people. Real stories. Real results. Short-format videos enable online and offline engagement. (TBA) |
Short-format feature videos are in high demand across multiple online platforms. We will jump into the motivators, processes, and values of the production of this kind of digital content. We will explore how short-format features can benefit your connections to present and potential customers, both in terms of anecdotal evidence, as well as tangible analytics. We will discover how this content helps reshape public perception and increases social cooperation. Finally, we will explore how these scalable methods can help your cooperative reach new audiences to facilitate communication strategies that can bolster your public perception and online vitality. | |
3:30-4:30 | General Session 5 (Anasazi Ballroom) Discover Greatness and Glory for Your Brand (Marcy Tessmann & Brandon Miller, C.O. nxt) |
The strongest brands are those that are built with purpose. In this interactive session, you’ll learn from branding experts about Brand Camp—a one-day, activity-packed workshop that brings together key stakeholders in your organization to discover, align and rally around your brand for maximum impact in the marketplace. Join us to see how, whether you’re building your brand from the ground up or need to revisit an existing brand to keep it nurtured and growing, Brand Camp can help you put together the building blocks of who you are and why you exist, guiding you to your True North. | |
5:00 | Group Dinners |
Wednesday, June 8 |
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8:00-9:00 | Connector Group Breakfast Meeting (Zia A and Zia B) |
9:00-10:00 | Panel Session (Anasazi Ballroom) Ag Retailers Leveraging Digital Marketing to Maximize Sales Efforts (Anna Caroze, AGVend / Panelists – TBA) |
Hear from a panel of AgVend Partner Retailers about how they were able to make AgVend happen. Marketing leaders with various backgrounds share insights into leveraging digital marketing to boost engagement, drive incremental sales, create process efficiencies…and more. | |
10:15–11:45 | General Session 6 (Anasazi Ballroom) Creating Communications Plans for Various Audiences (internal, public, government) (Patric Woehrle, Los Alamos National Laboratory) |
As communicators, how do you know if you have properly harnessed your leaderships direction with the needs of your customers. How do you take what your leadership wants communicated and distribute it to your customer set on the platform most useful to them? As a national security institution, Los Alamos National Laboratory has a diverse customer set that is evolving away from old media practices and demanding more products like Podcasts, YouTube videos, TikTok and the full gamut of social media. I will discuss our planning, budgeting and hiring strategies along with feedback gathering techniques we use at LANL to integrate all this together along with the associated challenges. | |
11:45-1:00 | Lunch on Your Own |
1:00-2:00 | Breakout Session 1 (Zia Room) Cloning Yourself, Cooperative-Style: Building a Freelance Network That Helps You Get the Job Done (Zach Smith, Rural Missouri-Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives) |
As cooperative communicators, we’re no strangers to wearing multiple hats. At times the tasks can be overwhelming, but there’s help waiting in the wings you didn’t even know you had: freelancers. Through the lens of the freelance program at Rural Missouri magazine, you’ll learn some best practices on how to cultivate a group of self-motivated freelancers, work through the pitch and editing process and how to keep them coming back for more. We’ll also discuss aspects of building a quality freelance program such as budgeting, publication considerations, plagiarism and workshop development for new cooperative communicators. | |
Breakout Session 2 (Anasazi Ballroom) Use Personal Branding to Boost Your Value at Work (Chellie Phillips, Chellie Phillips-Successfully Ever After) |
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No one will pay you what you’re worth. Only what they think you’re worth. And you control what they think. Developing a strong personal brand will help you gain visibility, demonstrate your value, and boost your career. In this session, you’ll learn skills to help make your work known and how you can position yourself for career development and advancement. | |
2:00-2:15 | Afternoon Break |
2:15-3:15 | General Session 7 (Anasazi Ballroom) How to Focus on the 5R’s of Cooperative Public Relations in the Midst of “Doing it All” (Alicia Heun, Paulsen) |
Many cooperatives work on shoestring budgets and keep their marketing and communications teams lean. You’re literally doing it all…how can you do more? In this session, attendees will learn how to give 100 percent when it comes to media relations with the five R’s of public relations: Build relationships, be relevant, get ready, be responsive, and ensure your team rehearses and has resources prepared. | |
3:15-3:30 | Afternoon Break |
3:30-4:30 | Breakout Session 1 (Anasazi Ballroom) Live-streaming Events and Sports (Emanuel DeHerrera, PTCI) |
This session will focus on the fundamentals of live streaming. Learn about multiple and single-camera setups, graphic overlays, camera switching, and commercial insertions. This session will break down the basics of setting up PTZ cameras. Incorporate a green screen in your live broadcast with a few helpful steps. | |
Breakout Session 2 (Zia Room) Diversify the Subject Matter Experts for Inclusive Perspectives (Tamela Blalock, NCBA CLUSA) |
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Diversity is more prevalent among “inspirational stories”, however, there is a dominant demographic who is overrepresented when “subject matter experts” (SMEs) are identified. A lack of representation regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and so many other elements of diversity is apparent for SMEs across a wide spectrum of fields and industries, except for DEI content. The message that ends up being relayed is that SMEs only exist among a particular demographic, and is lacking among other demographics, which is not a reality. | |
4:30-6:00 | Free time |
6:00-7:30 | Honors Banquet (Anasazi Ballroom) |
7:30 p.m. | Free Evening/Departures |
2022 Annual Sponsors







REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN
Early Bird pricing ends May 6 — Final date to register is May 16
CCA Institute Registration 2022
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Refund Policy
All cancellations must be made in writing via email to cca@communicators.coop or faxed to 814-355-2452.
A 50% refund will be provided for cancellations received by May 9, 2022.