Peoria Conference Teaches and Entertains

PEORIA — This past weekend, some Illinois Central College students and staff attended a conference in Peoria for the purpose of learning new ways to get students involved on ICC’s campuses.

The fact that the National Association of Campus Activities’ (NACA) annual Mid-America regional conference was held at the Peoria Civic Center this year made it convenient for ICC to have a presence there. Two ICC staff members and nine students attended the conference, which began on Thursday, ended on Saturday and involved about 36 hours of programming.

“All different programming boards from different institutions go there to see showcases of artists that will perform at schools, whether they’re a hypnotist, magician, comedian or educational speaker,” said Rhonda Elmore, coordinator of student leadership and engagement at ICC. “So our students can actually go view these people and determine if we want to bring them on campus. They can also form blocks with other schools in the area and get the artists for a cheaper price.”

The conference was attended by dozens of entertainment and activities companies and more than one hundred schools from across the US. The ICC members that attended had the opportunity to learn about these different organizations and institutions and how each of them worked to make college campuses a more engaging place for students.

“NACA was an extraordinary experience to network with other students and hear what they were doing across mid-America,” said attending student Trevor Mileur, 20, of Peoria. “I thought it was really interesting to see what other schools were doing, and it had a sort of competitive drive.”

One of the ways the different groups shared information with each other at the conference was through numerous educational workshops that each gave attendees the chance to learn from a host group about a unique topic, and ICC members actually led two of these sessions.

A large part of the conference was devoted to showcasing the talents of various performers to attendees. These “showcases” amounted to 16 hours of the conference’s total length, and they gave ICC students the chance to preview performers ranging from folk bands to comedians to inspirational lecturers.

The student attendees were all associated with either the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement or Campus Activities Board (CAB), the student organization at ICC that focuses solely on hosting fun events for students on campus, and they felt that their time was well spent.

“I really liked the opportunity of going and seeking out good talent for Campus Activities Board [to bring to ICC],” said student attendee Jessica Chanto, 19, of East Peoria. “We met some cool people there.”

Check below to listen to a song by The Speedbumps, one of the conference’s dozens of performers.