Highlights and Key Takeaways from an Inspiring Event: Elevating Cougs 2024

This year’s Elevating Cougs employee development conference was a standout event, offering three focused tracks on development/wellness, leadership, and Workday Successes. In response to last year’s feedback, the planning team concentrated on fewer but longer sessions, enabling deeper engagement and more meaningful discussions. Additionally, several cross-track sessions were introduced, covering topics like Touchpoints, WSU Org Structure, Onboarding, and AI in the Cougar Workplace.

“This was a fantastic topic. I would have liked for it to be a longer webinar session as this topic is so in-depth. The panel was absolutely fantastic, as was the moderator assigned to the webinar. 10 out of 10, would attend this topic again next year.”

The two-day conference kicked off on Tuesday, October 22,with the keynote session, “Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety: Unlocking Potential Through Trust and Inclusivity,” presented by Carlee Osburn from the Washington State Employee Assistance Program. This session attracted the largest audience of the event.

Other popular sessions included:

Elevating Cougs was a true community effort, with the involvement of WSU leaders, colleagues, and participants. The numbers are impressive—820 registrations, 660 attendees, 51 sessions, and 73 speakers over two days—but the real success lies in how this event fostered growth, empowerment, and support across WSU.

“I really enjoyed this session. It was relevant to what our team is currently going through. I appreciated the breakout sessions and the invitation to be vulnerable with peers, even in a Zoom setting.”

For those who couldn’t attend live, there’s good news! If you registered for the event, you can still access the Zoom event platform and session replays. In the coming weeks, replays and additional resources will also be available on Percipio.

As we close this year’s event, your event organizers are already planning for next year, and your input is vital. If you attended live or watched any of the 52 available replays, we want to hear your thoughts—what worked, what didn’t, and suggestions for future sessions and speakers. Please take a few minutes to provide your candid feedback utilizing the survey below.

” The speaker did a fantastic job of showing us how to use the Requisition App. I even logged into Workday as she went through it. Thanks for developing this for us!”

A big THANK YOU to every attendee, speaker, moderator, and organizer for making Elevating Cougs 2024 a success! We look forward to building on this momentum for an even greater conference next year!

Content Credit: Carey Musburger, Learning & Organizational Development Assistant