The agenda for the three-day FICP Education Forum included three keynote speakers, the Planners’ Exchange, and a choice of 13 breakouts.

FICP is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Education Forum attendees were invited to sign a commemorative “wall” that will travel to the FICP Annual Conference, November 12–15 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego.

The high-energy, fun, and funny Brad Montgomery brought home the message of how important it is to build up others and the incredible impact an act of positivity can have.

Brad Montgomery’s antics at one point turned the FICP crowd into dancing flash mob.

The beautiful Somerset Chapel at Montage Palmetto Bluff was the location for several of the education breakouts at the FICP Education Forum. Here, Dahlia El Gazzar, DALIA+, leads a session on tools to help planners manage their inbox.

(From left) Hilary Dunlavey, CMP, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide; Carol Fogerty, The Phoenician; and Donna Costa, CMP, Sun Life Financial at the 2017 FICP Education Forum.

A riverfront welcome event on Palmetto Bluff’s Village Green featured a memorable dinner spread (including a “grits bar”), a bourbon cart, and a s’mores cart, with a selection of homemade marshmallows to roast in the fire pit.

Katie Senkowski, CMP, (left) and Mia Righetti, both with AIG, toast marshmallows for s’mores at the FICP welcome event.

In an interactive general session, Robb Zbierski, Freedom Personal Development, gave attendees tools to improve their ability to remember names, lists, and other important information.

Michael Burke, CMP, The Hanover Insurance Group; Marian Cardiner, CMP, Fiesta Americana and Live Aqua Hotels & Resorts; and other FICP Education Forum attendees get revved up for a late-afternoon scavenger hunt.

FICP attendees head off on a scavenger hunt that took them throughout Palmetto Bluff.

Attendees took a 10-minute boat ride down the tidal river to Moreland Landing, a remote corner of Palmetto Bluff, where a Low Country dinner awaited.

FICP’s executive director Steve Bova, far left, and members of the FICP board of directors welcome attendees to Moreland Landing for the Education Forum’s final night dinner: (from left) Bova; Michael Burke, CMP, The Hanover Insurance Group; Caryn Taylor Lucia, CMP, SEI; Joe Scully, John Hancock Financial Services; Marcia Merando, LLIF, FLMI, LUTCF, Frankenmuth Insurance; and Sherri Lindenberg, Crump.

Keynoter Andy Core, a “change management realist,” talked about how to be a strong leader during changing times.

Eileen Fahey, Hello Destination Management, (left) and Nicky De Champlain, JPdL Destination Management Canada

After FICP announced that Vancouver is the site of the 2018 FICP Education Forum, Michael Parson, from the still-under-construction host property, JW Marriott parq Vancouver; and Wendy Surkan, Tourism Vancouver, got up to say a few words of welcome.