Nurses in Business – Nurse Entrepreneurs in Las Vegas!
I have been having a wonderful time reading all the comments from this year’s National Nurses in Business Association’s conference in Las Vegas!
“Fabulous conference, perfect speakers, topics and Shark Tank Competition the best!!! Love the hotel, food and location. I’ll be back!”
“Excellent speakers & content, thank you!”
“I simply cannot say enough good things about this weekend! Jacque Cousteau is my underwater hero…Donna Cardillo is my land bound hero!!”
“This conference really helped me appreciate the nursing profession. I am not a bedside RN and that’s OK! Thank you for helping me find a community of so many like-minded people.”
“Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio opened my eyes to hundreds of opportunities I can do right now, she is such an incredible role model!”
“Fantastic weekend; loved learning about social media!”
We had over 100 nurses filling out evaluation forms, comment cards and speaking to us personally about this year’s NNBA Educational conference on Nurse Entrepreneurship. This Signature Event began as a grass roots movement in 1985. Celebrating 30 Years of Nurses Entrepreneurship was truly special for those attending. We had NNBA’s first president, Dr. Kay Davis and Pamela Buckman, one of original board members sharing with our audience in the Pearls of Wisdom segment. Dr. Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio kicked off Saturday with her Keynote “Making a Million in Nursing” that had all the nurses glued to their seats. I have never seen an audience so engaged, laughing and excited to apply one or more of the many opportunities Laura discussed! The generosity, encouragement and support of nurse entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs in attendance is that special something that makes our association unique. I heard that repeated many times over, starting off with our Meet and Greet in the Crown room and it just kept getting better and better.
NNBA’s Shark Tank Competition was mentioned many times as a crowd favorite with requests to repeat it next year. When I asked if there would be more contestants applying next year at least 15 nurses raised their hand! Our winner Heather Taylor, will be back and will fill us in on how the next year goes.
I had the honor of presenting NNBA’s Vanguard Award to Pamela Buckman, Kay Davis, Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio and Pat Bemis. Vanguard means, people leading the way in new developments or ideas. It is because of these nurses foresight and dedication to nurses being independent business owners that the NNBA celebrated their 30 year anniversary.
Thank you to all the speakers, exhibitors and nurses attending. All the nurses, those in the inquiring and initial development stage as well as veterans of nurse business ownership, came up to me to say how inspiring, educational and exciting all the presentations were. I want to always make sure that we have succeeded in providing value for all our members.
More of Debbie Lefever’s amazing pictures will be made available and sure to turn up in our upcoming newsletters. I will provide some links in the near future. It’s an honor and privilege to lead the NNBA and together we will continue to act as the national voice for nurses in business!
I loved the shark tank competition! Great way to help out the nurse entrepreneurs who come to the conference. I was wondering if you might consider having a “hot seat” session as well, where members can have 5 minutes to explain what their biggest challenge is and have the audience give back advice for how to work on the issue. Everyone could learn a lot from this event!
I really enjoyed the weekend and I am looking forward to coming back next year! I had a fantastic time and met a lot of wonderful people. Thank you for all the work that went into the conference, it was definitely worth it!
I really enjoyed the conference. I only attended the workshop on Saturday but the presenters were awesome! I really thought the Shark Tank competition was the most exciting thing for the day. On the way from the airport, I happened to set on the bus beside the Shark Tank presenter from Florida who presented on the program for college students. I was impressed with her presentation. Half way to the hotel on the bus, I started up a conversation with her. I had no ideal that she was a nurse and did not realize that she was presenting at the conference. I forgot her name but did not forget her excellent presentation. With that said, I have a connection of a professional speaker who has presented to the National Speakers Association here in Northern California about how to get booked on college campuses. She is an expert at this and previously worked on several college campuses before becoming a professional speaker. I did not get the nurse’s name who made that presentation but I would like to connect her with the NSA speaker if she is interested. Could someone provide me with her information or better yet have her contact me. AS Brian Tracy says “You Never Know Who You Are Sitting Next To”. Funny how the universe works in synergy. Pauline Sanders