The 2020 Virtual Conference theme is

“The Value of Standardization and the Standards Professional”

 Agenda

Wednesday August 5th

10 AM – Official Opening 

10:15 AM – 11:00 AM – Keynote: Jim Pauley, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Fire Protection Association

11:00 - 11:15 AM – Break

11:15 AM – 12:00 - Session 1 – The Link Between Community Resiliency and Codes & Standards

Megan Hayes, NEMA,Technical Director for Operations

Bryan P. Holland, NEMA , Southern Region Field Representative for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association

The purpose of this session is to discuss how societal demand, emerging technologies, and best practices can be incorporated into building and electrical codes and standards to enhance and improve community resiliency. Building and electrical codes have served for decades as protectors of our safety, ensuring that products installed in buildings meet certain performance requirements and that together, make our world a safer place. As society faces different challenges – larger storm systems, increased risk of flooding, more forest fires, devastating earthquakes, etc., building and electrical codes are serving to ensure community resiliency before, during, and after a natural disaster. Representatives from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) will present their perspective on the importance of codes and standards when addressing the opportunities and challenges of community resiliency

12:00 PM – 12:15 PM SES Awards - Amanda Benedict 

12:15 PM – 1:00 PM Break

1:00 PM– 1:30 PM Session 2 – Why Competencies are Important for Today’s Standardization Professional

Karen Reczek, Social Scientist, Standards Coordination Office (SCO), National Institute of Standards & Technology

Erik Puskar, Senior Standards Specialist, Standards Coordination Office (SCO), National Institute of Standards & Technology

Lisa Spellman, Executive Director of Exchangewell Global Digital Consortia with SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC®)

Competencies are often overlooked and undervalued. When properly managed, awareness and use add value to organizational strategic and HR efforts. As common denominators, competencies help describe what abilities the organization needs and how to acquire them.  Competencies can be part of employee hiring, on-boarding, performance appraisal, compensation, and succession planning. Competencies can make it easier to communicate with workers about the qualifications needed to be considered for future work in the organization. Competencies provide a means to discuss career paths and articulate specific ways to develop oneself or leverage one's strengths. This session will focus on the importance of defining the skill sets and competencies needed to be successful in standards and conformity assessment. Participants will gain an understanding of the distinction between the skills and competencies, the role they play in career development and of the work being done at ISO and in Asia on competencies for standardization professions. Speakers will share plans underway to develop an SES competency framework for standardization professionals and our job description clearinghouse.

1:30 PM– 2:00 PM  - Session 3 – Attracting Under-represented Interest Categories – Stakeholder Participation in the Standards Development Process

Karin Athanas, Executive Officer of Women in Standards

The consensus reached by a balanced standards development committee plays an important role in standards development. Each stakeholder brings a different perspective to discussions and through the consensus development process, SDOs can have confidence that the standards developed will be effective for the industry and stakeholders it seeks to serve. However, ensuring balance can be difficult to achieve. Attracting stakeholders to a voluntary process and ensuring their successful participation requires strategy and out-of-the-box thinking.

Through a survey of US based ANSI-accredited standards development organizations (SDO), the Women in Standards sought to identify the commonly under represented stakeholders in the standards development process and strategies that SDOs have found successful in attracting participants from those stakeholder groups. This presentation will discuss the results of that study and offer insights on approaches that other SDOs can use to help them attract participants from under represented stakeholder groups.

Learning Objectives:

This presentation will discuss which interest categories are reported to be the least represented in standards development and offer insights on approaches that can be used to increase participation.

2:00 PM – Day one of conference ends

Thursday August 6th

10:00 AM – 10:45 AM Session 4 – The Impact of AI: New Ways to Work

Moderator: - Lisa Carnahan, Associate Director for IT Standardization, National Institute of Standards & Technology

Speaker 1: Pat Baird, Sr. Regulatory Specialists – Head of Global Software Standards, Phillips

Speaker 2: Anju Sharma, AI Chatbot Product Manager

Not only has the COVID-19 crisis had a major impact on the way we work it is also acting as an accelerate for new technologies. This ranges from enhanced virtual conferences, to telemedicine, to robotics delivery services. Many of these changes are being powered by AI Technology. In this session, we will explore ways that AI technology is enhance and shaping the new ways to work and discuss how standards and conformity assessment can empower and accelerate these solutions.

10:45 - 11:00 AM – Break

11:00 AM – 12:00 Session 5 – Enhancing Consumer Participation in Standards Development

Moderator: Priscilla Magee, Consumer Outreach Manager, American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

Speaker 1: Patricia (Patty) Edwards, Voluntary Standards Coordinator for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Speaker 2: Molly Lynyak , Manager, Technical Committee Operations, ASTM International

Speaker 3: Karyn Ferguson, Manager Member Education and Committee Services, CSA

Voluntary consensus standards affect nearly every consumer product, yet consumers have long been underrepresented in the development of these standards. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredits standard development organizations (SDOs) and American National Standards by neutrally auditing an SDO’s standard development processes. The document, ANSI’s Essential Requirements, lists criteria and qualities that the development process must include to be accredited, such as balance, openness, lack of dominance, due process, and consensus. SDOs best achieve these requirements—and optimize their standards— when consumers have a seat at the table. Despite efforts from SDOs of all sizes and funding levels, nearly all struggle to connect with and engage consumers in their standards activities.

ANSI staff will moderate a roundtable detailing ANSI’s commitment to consumer participation in the voluntary consensus standards process and discuss and brainstorm ways in which consumer participation can be enhanced. Two standards development organizations will join the conversation to discuss their current level of consumer participation and outreach methods. A representative from the Consumer Product Safety Commission will also join to discuss the Commission’s role in standards activities, their perspectives on consumer participation, and highlight standards that have greatly benefited from consumer engagement. The group will discuss the value proposition to engage consumer advocates and public interest groups in standards activities, emerging areas of standardization of greatest interest to consumers, and brainstorm ways to conduct effective outreach and improve long-term engagement with this stakeholder group.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

During this roundtable the audience will learn the benefits of engaging consumer advocates and public interest groups in the standards development process and how to more effectively conduct outreach and engage these groups.

11:45 AM – 12:30 PM Break

12:25 PM – 1:00 PM  Business Meeting

1:00 PM   – 1:30 PM  Session 6: Rethinking Privacy Agreements

Speaker: Jennifer Teague, Director, Standards Research, CSA Group

The Internet of Things is becoming an increasingly ubiquitous part of our society. The products and services delivered through these technologies often involve the collection of user personal data, and there are growing privacy concerns around how these data are collected and managed. Privacy agreements remain the primary source of privacy information for users; however, these documents are often lengthy and difficult to understand. This research explored a modified privacy agreement layout using pictograms to better communicate key privacy terms to technology users. Pictograms were developed to communicate privacy concepts that matter most to users through an iterative design process that was validated with user testing. The results represent a starting point for improving user comprehension and decision-making
around privacy terms and provide an opportunity for standards development in this rapidly evolving field.

1:30 PM   – 2:00 PM Closing Keynote 

–Amy Lestition Burke, MA, CAE Senior Vice President, Engagement, Association Solutions MCI USA

Member Engagement in a 2D World: Connections Beyond the Screen

Connecting with members digitally is about more than technology. Members are the heart of an organization and it’s key to have a deep understanding of what members need to feel connected in our current environment. Learn the keys to designing an engagement strategy in efforts to effectively meet members where they are and provide continued value. Join Amy Burke, Senior Vice President of Engagement, MCI USA and Executive Director of the Special Libraries Association, as she shares expert tips for staying connected with, and providing value to, members both now and going forward.  

In this session, we will discuss the following:  

Engaging your members and stakeholders 365 days a year

Exploring new membership business models

Building the digital member experience

Enhancing the volunteer experience

Developing options for renewals, new members and stakeholder outreach

2:00 PM - Day two of conference ends