Attending on a Tight Budget?

URMIA wants to help get you the risk management education you need in these uncertain times in higher education. Now, more than ever, new risk mitigation opportunities and innovative solutions to campus challenges are crucial for risk managers.

Tools available to help ensure you can attend the conference:

  • Scholarships for registration AND travel fees are available. 
  • Stretch your campus workforce development dollars with 3-for-2. If two people from an institution attend in-person, a 3rd colleague from the same campus can attend the virtual program for free (contact URMIA to learn more)
  • Need just one invoice? Use URMIA's corporate travel platform to manage your travel (we'll invoice you - contact Carrie to learn more)
  • URMIA has negotiated special discounts for URMIA attendees traveling to Philadelphia via airplane

Make Your Case to Attend - 4 Easy Steps

Do you need help convincing others that you should attend URMIA's annual conference? We can help! Below is some guidance along with justification letter templates for you to personalize and share with your supervisor. With changes happening rapidly in today's higher ed environment, your institution can't afford  you to miss the annual conference where you can stay up with the latest in compliance, international travel, insurance, contracts, cybersecurity, constitutional risk, and more. It's part of your campus mitigation planning.

1. Calculate Your Expenses

Gather tangible information to support your request for professional development dollars. Factors include:

Two URMIA members talking

Registration Fees

The earlier you register, the more you save. Our May registration fees are available through June 3, 2026. Once you register, you lock in the registration rate and pay immediately. Institutions can download an invoice for later payment.

Hotel & Travel

URMIA's discount conference overnight room rates are available through September 16 or until the room block is sold out.

Discounts for airline travel are also available. See details.

2. Define the Return on Investment

For Your Employer

Consider what you will be bringing back to your department and your campus. Plan specific outcomes using the reflection questions and references below:

  1. What risk management problems are our institution trying to solve?
  2. What learning opportunities can I find or create at the conference to address these issues (e.g., specific workshops and breakout sessions, networking with other risk managers, participating in roundtable discussions, etc.)?
  3. Who can I partner with to find solutions (such as attendees from similar institutions, URMIA leaders, or affiliated service providers)?
  4. Are there any other opportunities in the conference city that I can leverage? 
  5. Can I meet with one of our business partners while I am at the conference?
  6. Offer to host a conference debrief for those not in attendance and present some takeaways?

For Your Workforce Development

Explore the program schedule and session descriptions to map out a plan and outline how the experience will help you expand your skill set and grow as a professional. You can even filter the sessions in the schedule by URMIA's Core Competencies for Higher Education Risk Managers. (members-only resource; login required)

Check to see if any of the sessions or the conference in general helps you meet any of your personal goals or goals that are part of your annual performance review.

Talk about your plan to follow up with new colleagues within 24–48 hours after conference to solidify connections and action items. Send personalized emails mentioning specific conversations, share key takeaways or resources, and define next steps to keep momentum going. Ensure you connect on LinkedIn to maintain long-term professional relationships.

3. Write a Justification Letter

Download the appropriate template and make it your own.

4. Follow Through After the Conference

Prepare a list of prompts to ask yourself during and after the conference. You may want to set milestones (3 days, 3 weeks,  6 months) after returning to the office to review your experiences, and from that, create a list of your accomplishments. This may help you justify attending future URMIA events.

  • What were my key discoveries, solutions, and surprises?
  • What are the tangible things that I am bringing back from this experience?
  • What solutions did I learn about to address problems our institution is facing?
  • What relationships did I build or bolster?
  • What else made this conference valuable to me?
  • With whom do I need to follow up?
  • What do I need to do to implement new ideas and solutions?
  • What new questions do I have?