By Adam Turteltaub
adam.turteltaub@corporatecompliance.org
At the HCCA and SCCE we get a lot of questions about the differences between our Institutes, Academies and Regional meetings. To help figure out which one is the best for you, here’s a brief overview:
Institutes
The HCCA Compliance Institute and the SCCE Compliance and Ethics Institute are our large, national conferences. These events feature multiple tracks of concurrent sessions, along with keynote speakers and are spread out over four days. They have an exhibit hall filled with dozens and dozens of vendors for you to meet with.
Institutes are great vehicles for picking and choosing sessions that meet the needs of your current program, and even show you where compliance is heading in the future.
They are also terrific ways to expand your network beyond the local compliance community. And, in the case of the Compliance and Ethics Institute, you’ll also be able to expand your network well beyond the US. There’s always a strong international contingent.
Thinking of speaking at an Institute? Look for the Call for Speakers emails announcing when they are open or visit the Call for Speakers page on the SCCE and HCCA websites and mark down upcoming Call for Speakers dates.
Regional Conferences
These meetings are smaller events, sometimes with less than 100 participants. They are designed to meet local needs. So, a committee of compliance professionals in the community identifies the pressing topics they are hearing about from their peers. They then identify and reach out to speakers to create a truly local agenda.
Networking is also on the local scale, and while there are vendors present, the exhibiting is much lower key.
SCCE and HCCA regional meetings are very affordable, and a convenient way to pick up live CEUs to maintain your certification.
Academies
The HCCA Compliance Academies and SCCE Compliance & Ethics Academies are not conferences. Instead, they provide three and a half days of classroom-style instruction in the fundamentals of managing a compliance program. The curriculum stays constant from Academy to Academy. Even the faculty varies minimally.
This ensures that every Academy graduate shares the same fundamental understanding of best practices in developing and managing a compliance and ethics program.
The Academies are also excellent preparation for the certification exam, and the vast majority of attendees take this optional test at the conclusion of the Academy.
Academies are ideal for those relatively new to the profession who want to get quickly up to speed in program essentials. For more experienced practitioners, it provides an opportunity to stop and to gauge how your program stacks up against industry standards.
And, for everyone, an Academy is a great preparation for the certification exam.
Hopefully this helps you better understand whether an Institute, Regional Conference or an Academy is the right choice for you.
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