‘Getting to Know’ INTA
Just when you think you know everything about INTA, think again! The Association has been moving forward in multiple directions with new initiatives and updates to existing ones. The Annual Meeting Virtual+ will be “the place” for registrants to explore what’s new and recollect all else that INTA offers. Alex Baldwin reports.
“It’s always an exciting time in the life of the Association when we unveil a new Strategic Plan and everyone rallies behind it.”
INTA President Tiki Dare
INTA has gone out of its way to make sure brand professionals stay informed, connected, and excited about this year’s Annual Meeting.
“One of our greatest strengths as an organization is being realistic and flexible,” said INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo. “In everything we undertake, our objective is to be transformative, helping members learn, grow, and connect, and preparing them and the IP community as a whole for the future.”
To achieve this, INTA is focusing several sessions throughout the five-day virtual event on its latest projects and goals to help keep the intellectual property (IP) community up to date on how the Association looks now and how it will look in the future.
One major disclosure at the Meeting will be the content of INTA’s new 2022–2025 Strategic Plan, which will guide every step of the Association’s goals for the next four years.
“Getting to know” INTA includes getting to know the Association’s leadership. One special activity on the agenda is President’s Office Hours, offering registrants the opportunity to casually converse with INTA President Tiki Dare. Join her in the INTA Café on various days and times.
Here is a selection of the INTA-centered sessions at this year’s Annual Meeting, as well as a look behind the curtains at a few of the offerings relevant for current and incoming committee members.
“The INTAcollaborate platform helps create more consistency in the committee member experience.”
Chief Governance Officer Randi Mustello
INTAcollaborate
This year’s Annual Meeting will include the debut of a new committee management and collaboration tool—INTAcollaborate. Its release marks another giant advance in the Association’s ongoing digital transformation project.
INTAcollaborate provides each of the Association’s committees with its own workspace, offering members a place to co-create content, live-chat with others, and access committee documents. In addition, a central hub—INTAcollaborate 101—houses documents, templates, and announcements pertaining to committee work.
On Monday, November 15, at 2:30 pm (EST), and on Tuesday, November 16, at 9:15 am (EST), INTA will feature a half-hour session demonstrating this powerful tool to attendees.
Giving a brief rundown of INTAcollaborate’s functionality, Chief Governance Officer Randi Mustello explained: “The INTAcollaborate platform helps create more consistency in the committee member experience.
“It’s a dynamic tool that will improve member value by maximizing the committee experience. It will help with time management, reduce duplication, strengthen collaboration, and facilitate seamless transitions between committee terms.”
Rediscovering INTA’s Practice Guides
INTA’s myriad Practice Guides are among the Association’s most widely used resources, helping practitioners around the world quickly and efficiently find information used in their daily practice. Now, as part of the digital transformation project, the Practice Guides have undergone a transformation.
The new and improved Guides will be published in late October, and INTA’s Legal Resources staff will take a deep dive into their features and functionality during the Annual Meeting. Join them at one of three 90-minute sessions, on Tuesday, November 16, at 11:15 am (EST); Thursday, November 18, at 7:15 am (EST); or Friday, November 19 at 12:15 pm (EST).
“The leadership programming at the Annual Meeting provides critical insights that members can utilize in their day jobs and in their volunteer roles at INTA.”
Yunquan Li, partner, Wanhuida Intellectual Property (China)
Leadership Labs
There are also sessions specifically for committee leaders on the agenda, which are presented by the Leadership Development Committee. To accommodate members in various regions, INTA will hold two sessions of Leadership Labs for committee chairs and vice chairs at different times; separately, there will be two sessions of Leadership Labs for subcommittee chairs at different times.
In addition, with the 2022–2023 Committee Term coming up, two “transition” training sessions will help current and new leaders through this process.
At the Leadership Labs, committee leaders will come together to discuss best practices and any challenges faced during the term. Topics on the agenda include committee member engagement, effective delegation, managing up and across teams, various committee and subcommittee structures, and transitioning.
“The Leadership Labs allows leaders to meet and contribute ideas, share stories, and ask questions. As a staff liaison, I always find it meaningful to see a committee leader sharing a practice or process that helps another leader,” said Peg Reardon, INTA’s director, Member Experience.
“INTA takes the points discussed at the Leadership Labs very seriously, and new programs and resources have been created as a result of these conversations,” she continued. “For example, the Committee Leadership Transition Session we are offering [twice] at the 2021 Annual Meeting is a result of the Leadership Labs from the 2020 Leadership Meeting.”
Developed from member feedback, these all-new leadership transition sessions will take place on Monday, November 15, at 1:15 pm (EST) and Tuesday, November 16, at 8:00 am (EST). They will review INTA’s new roadmap to help committee leaders complete the 2020–2021 Committee Term and prepare for the next term.
“Committee transition is important and necessary to close one term and successfully shift projects and programs to a new term,” Ms. Reardon said. Having new teams and committee members come in and pick up where the last committee left off requires planning and documentation. The Committee Leadership Transition Session can provide best practices and steps on how to make this happen effectively.”
As always, committee meetings will be taking place throughout the Meeting for current members, and incoming committee members are welcome to attend as well. (Members must register for the Annual Meeting to attend their committee meetings.)
In addition to the sessions for committee members, the Annual Meeting will include other professional development programming tailor-made to teach, challenge, and inspire attendees—regardless of where they are in their careers.
Noted Yunquan Li, partner, Wanhuida Intellectual Property (China) and a member of INTA’s Leadership Development Committee: “Professional development is essential for anyone who is career-focused, especially in these times when the role of the trademark practitioner is evolving and expanding. Specifically, the leadership programming at the Annual Meeting provides critical insights that members can utilize in their day jobs and in their volunteer roles at INTA.”
“One of our greatest strengths as an organization is being realistic and flexible.”
INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo
Opening Ceremonies: Virtual Engagement
The Opening Ceremonies will begin on Monday, November 15, at 9:00 am (EST), with welcoming remarks by Annual Meeting Project Team Co-Chairs Diane Lau, lead trademark paralegal at Facebook, Inc., (US), and Lorenzo Litta, chief business officer and legal counsel at BrandIT GmbH (Switzerland).
Then, INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo will take the stage to report to members on the Association’s key achievements from the past four years as INTA wraps up its 2018–2021 Strategic Plan.
“One of our greatest strengths as an organization is being realistic and flexible,” said INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo. “In everything we undertake, our objective is to be transformative, helping members learn, grow, and connect, and preparing them and the IP community as a whole for the future.”
During the Opening Ceremonies and Keynote, attendees will also hear from Ms. Dare, the Association’s top elected leader and vice president and associate general counsel at Oracle Corporation (US), as well as Corporation (US), and Keynote Speaker Denise Lee Yohn (US), a prominent brand leadership expert.
The run of the show and the type of content delivered at the Opening Ceremonies remains largely the same virtually as at an in-person event, but there is a key difference on the day itself.
Registrants will be able to live-chat as the virtual session progresses, so INTA will be facilitating audience participation in real time to engage registrants.
INTA’s “Vision for the Future” session will take place on Thursday, November 18, at 11:30 am (EST), and will highlight INTA’s 2022–2025 Strategic Plan.
INTA’s 2022‒2025 Strategic Plan
As well as looking back at 2021 during the Opening Ceremonies, Association leaders will look ahead during INTA’s “Vision for the Future.” This session will take place on Thursday, November 18, at 11:30 am (EST), and will highlight INTA’s 2022–2025 Strategic Plan.
Released every four years, the Strategic Plan caps a multi-year process of ideating and developing a set of guiding principles and goals for the Association for the next four years. The exercise begins with a consultation phase, in which members and other stakeholders in the IP community from around the world discuss the future role of brands and IP in society and how INTA can meet emerging needs.
Ms. Dare said that “the depth and breadth of consultation, and the variety of points of view, expertise, and experience we bring into the listening sessions are the most important.”
After the central themes are identified, the Planning Committee drafts the Strategic Plan and sends it to INTA’s Board for approval. The Strategic Plan will be rolled out alongside an Implementation Plan which, with input from INTA’s Officers and staff, charts specific projects from which committee and staff objectives will cascade to achieve the Plan’s goals.
In preparing to release details of the 2022–2025 Strategic Plan, Ms. Dare noted: “It’s always an exciting time in the life of the Association when we unveil a new Strategic Plan and everyone rallies behind it. Our members and the IP field as a whole stand to benefit greatly from what’s ahead.”
View the virtual program here, and check back regularly for updates.
Footage used under license from Adobe Stock / andreybiling
Thursday, September 24, 2021
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