2011 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting
 May 22–25 • Houston

Can't Make It to Houston? Join Us Online! AAM Annual Meeting Virtual Conference May 23-24 Get outstanding educational content live from the 2011 Annual Meeting in Houston without leaving your desk. The Virtual Conference is a two-day online event with ten sessions covering broad, multidisciplinary perspectives. Register now!


 AAM 2011 Annual Meeting logoThe AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo™ is the premier professional development offering in the museum field and the largest gathering of museum professionals in the world. Join us for more than 170 substantive program sessions, provocative thought leaders and unrivaled networking opportunities, all created to foster success for you and your institution.

“The Museum of Tomorow” is the theme for the 105th annual meeting, so we've highlighted here a few sessions and events that are not to be missed. Plan your time in Houston with our online-only Advance Program. Don't want the interactive version? View it as a PDF. You can also use AAM's online scheduler to create and save your personal itinerary. This scheduling tool can be used on your iPhone, Blackberry or Android.




What do we have planned?

Workshop and Sessions

 Forecasting the Future of Museums: A How-To Workshop
Sunday, May 22
To help envision the "Museum of Tomorrow" the Center for the Future of Museums is hosting a workshop on forecasting the future of Museums. The workshop will cover the basics of future studies: scanning, forecasting and scenario development. Attendees will review the major trends shaping America over the coming decades, and explore how these trends may shape society.

The Future of the Museum
9–10:15 a.m., Monday, May 23
This panel considers how museums might incorporate (more) material about the future in exhibits and community interactions. A new discipline called Futures Studies or Strategic Foresight takes a proactive stance by describing alternative futures in scenarios, influencing the future by capitalizing on opportunities and avoiding threats.

Practical Futurism: Harnessing the Power of Forecasting for Your Institutional Planning (This session will be webcast as part of the virtual meeting.)
9–10:15 a.m., Tuesday, May 24 

Futures-thinking fosters a start-up mindset and counters our tendency to look at only a short time frame, defend old assumptions and choose narrow measures of success. This session will showcase museums that have used forecasting reports produced by the Center for the Future of Museums to shape their institutions' long-range plans..

The Long View: Leadership Decisions for Environmentally Sustainable Museum Projects
9–10:15 a.m., Wednesday, May 25

Three exciting, green, transformative projects demonstrate how the decision-making process and experiences have affected these institutions and their relationships with their communities. The transformations include planning a new public garden while remediating acid drainage; designing the expansion of an existing riverfront museum; and a collections storage project that spurred a green rehabilitation.

Youth as Content Developers: Museums, New Media and 21st Century Skills
2–3:15 p.m., Wednesday, May 25

By using new media to connect youth with their collections and engage them as content developers for their communities, museums can harness emerging trends in peer-based online learning while preparing young people for their roles in an increasingly global and technologically complex society. Learn how a variety of museums are integrating new media into their educational programs to empower youth.

Art Installation

 Artist Tracy Hicks will challenge conference attendees to think about how natural history museums can help shape the future world, and what natural history museums themselves may look like in the future. You can find this piece in the AAM Showcase, within the MuseumExpo™ hall.

Ask A Futurist

 Volunteers from the University of Houston’s Future Studies program will guide attendees through the process of visioning potential futures through the use of a forecasting deck. Participants will be encouraged to share the story they have created in writing or in a CFM “Voice of the Future” video.