Week 8:
National Association of Chain Drug Stores

August 15, 2013

This week was primarily focused on TSE. This makes sense, as most people leave on Friday and the conference starts Saturday. Some of our Meetings department has already left to oversee the set-up process. I will be flying out at 7:10 am on Saturday morning. Needless to say, I am beyond excited and so thankful for this opportunity! Steve Anderson, Cornell alumni and CEO of NACDS, has really given me so many opportunities already. However, TSE is just the cherry on top! He is an incredible man who really loves his employees, and obviously, Cornell. He is always there to provide me with advice or guidance, as well. I am very fortunate!

I continued to work on updating the scripts for the Insight Sessions. I am so excited to attend these sessions and hear them live! I have worked on them so much that I feel responsible for them. I also feel as though I can recite them from memory since I have worked on them so long! We have a variety of amazing speakers, including the CEO’s of innovative companies, Harvard doctors, and former leaders of big-time organizations. Also, Hilary Clinton is our keynote speaker so we will definitely be hearing a fantastic speech. Needless to say, there is a real buzz about TSE. So far, we have around 7,000 people confirmed for the conference, with about 1,100 different retailers and associate members (such as pharmaceutical companies). I also finished up the agenda for the Faculty Scholars program. I spent a ton of time working on this and I learned an incredibly valuable lesson: instead of trying to be a superstar and make the program myself, it is much more efficient to ask for the original template from the creator, especially when it comes directly from our Marketing department. I will definitely keep this in mind for future projects throughout my career. The Faculty Scholars program is really interesting. Each year, the NACDS Foundation (our charitable association) takes research proposals from Junior Faculty members at various pharmacy schools across the nation. Their research can be anything from creating a new residency program, to helping to further to chain drug store industry as a whole. the Foundation selects the seven best proposals, and funds them. They then have several meetings throughout the year to discuss their research, meet with renowned researchers, and interact with each other. This is a great program because not only does it further the industry, but it also makes these individuals better professors. I also appreciate the diversity of the scholars, who are from all over the nation, including Mississippi, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Iowa. They are a really great group of professors who really care about their students. They sound exactly like Cornell professors!

I also got to attend a couple of high-level meetings this week. I cannot go into too much detail but they were fascinating! Just to be in the room with our senior level management and the consultants, working on grants, was incredible. Everyone is so knowledgeable and the way they all work together is efficient and successful. I was able to attend the meeting and take notes, which helped to further my understanding even more. I also plan to have dinner with another Cornell alum, Katie Mooshian ’99, on Thursday. She was happy to take some time out of her bust schedule to speak with me about some amazing job opportunities in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as provide me with some guidance for my future career endeavors. I am so excited!

Next week I will be in Vegas! I am sure that I will have so much to write about and many pictures to share!