Crossroads and Connections

2025 Mountain-Plains Museums Association Annual Conference

October 2-4, 2025 - Omaha, NE

Proposal Submission Deadline: January 31, 2025

LINK TO CALL FOR PROPOSALS FORM

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Thank you for being part of the Mountain-Plains Museums Association! Whether you’re a seasoned professional, newly minted graduate, or somewhere in between, your desire to share, learn, and grow shapes our association and enriches our communities. Right now, we’re gearing up for MPMA to visit the King City of the Plains -- Omaha, Nebraska -- in 2025. Next year’s annual conference is scheduled for October 2-4, 2025. We hope that you will join us, but also lend your professional expertise and curiosity by hosting a conference session or workshop. 

Inspired by Omaha’s rich history as a cultural crossroads, the theme for next year's conference is “Crossroads and Connections.” We know that museums have been at a crossroads in recent years and, as a museums association, we know that the connections we forge with one another and the communities we serve have never been more important. Have you faced a crossroads with a program, your institution, or career and found a path forward? Are you finding new and innovative ways to build connections with colleagues, visitors, or communities? We’d love to hear about it! Our call for session and workshop proposals is open now through January 31, 2025. 

We are looking for ideas for sessions and workshops. Each session is 75 minutes long with 1-3 presenters. It can be presented as a lecture, panel discussion, general roundtable, or something new that fits your needs. Workshops provide hands-on learning for half-day or full-day sessions. Workshops provide opportunities to brush up or learn new skills. All our sessions are tagged and organized with one or more professional tracks to keep things organized. Our tracks for 2025 are administration, archives/libraries, audience research, collections, community engagement, development/fundraising, DEAI, education, emerging museum professionals, exhibits, facilities/security, indigenous, interpretation, retail, small museums, technology, visitor services, volunteers, marketing, and membership.

So let’s gear up for Omaha! Start thinking about what sessions or workshops you can bring to the conference next year. To get you started we’ve put together examples of what conference sessions and workshops look like. They are available on the next page. If needed, the program committee can also help to connect you with potential co-presenters - just send us an email to get started! Also don’t forget about the MPMA scholarship program if you need financial help coming to Omaha. Scholarships are available for emerging and mid-career professionals. For questions please contact the program committee at program.committee@mpma.net.

Very Respectfully,

John Woodward                                                     
Program Committee Chair                                   
Director, WYMD Museums                      
Casper, WY                                                            
              

Micah Huyser
Program Committee Vice-Chair
Director, Nebraska Prairie Museum
Holdrege, NE

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