Dear ACPC Members,

Greetings! I hope everyone is safe and well, and enjoying the fall season. As it has been a few months since we were together at the Summer Meeting, I would like to update you on recent activities and provide a preview of upcoming events. We continue to build valuable offerings between our Summer and Winter meetings. On September 15, a regional meetup was held in the Detroit/Southwest Michigan area.
 
The attendees had the pleasure of hearing from Dennis Crouch of Patently-O as the special guest speaker. On October 27, we held a California/Bay Area regional meetup, with special guest speaker former Commissioner for Patents, Drew H. Hirshfeld. Several perspective new members attended both events and provided very positive feedback on ACPC. Thank you to the Program Committee for delivering two great events! The ExCo is working on additional regional meetups in the near future, with mid-Ohio and Atlanta regions in the early planning phase. We welcome suggestions and offers to assist in planning future regional meetups from all ACPC members. Please contact Jill Cyr at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any suggestions.

Our Digital Strategy continues to develop by adding exciting new program content to the virtual library and additional functionality and capabilities to our website. Expect to see further updates to the ACPC website and the conference app (Whova) soon.

In October, the ExCo accepted an invitation from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Several members of the ExCo traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to learn about planned WIPO service updates, and explore ways to extend and deepen the relationship between ACPC and WIPO. It was a pleasure for the ExCo members in attendance to represent ACPC and hear directly from WIPO Director General, Darren Tang, and leaders of several key departments of WIPO. The outcome of the visit is expected to create opportunities for ACPC members to receive higher quality professional content at future ACPC meetings and events, as well as obtain improved analytics on WIPO use and services. A special thank you to Lisa Jorgenson, WIPO Deputy Director General and ACPC member, for organizing this visit.

Finally, to continue to meet the needs of our members, the ExCo recently held a strategy workshop to focus the direction and priorities for ACPC for the next three to five years. There is no significant directional change, but rather a consensus to take action to emphasize what makes ACPC such a wonderful and valuable organization – a place to meet and share best practices of running an effective in-house IP operation. We agreed to develop a marketing plan to clearly communicate why eligible people should be members of ACPC and a member experience plan to clearly communicate why long- term membership is valuable and what is expected of ACPC members. Lastly, we developed a financial plan to invest in the member experience to maximize attendance at ACPC events.

We will share more details going forward and at our Winter Meeting. You will begin to see actions from the strategy workshop starting with registration and the program agenda for the Winter Meeting. We welcome participation and input from all ACPC members who would like to get more involved in the implementation next year. There will be sign-up opportunities available at the Winter Meeting. Please look for the Winter Meeting registration to open later in November.You, our ACPC members, are what make this organization a success. I thank you for the engagement, and look forward to seeing you all in Phoenix, Arizona on January 22- 25, 2023.

Sincerely,
Glenn Edwards
President