Business
Michael O’Brien became the publisher of LAM in December 2014. A native of Niagara Falls, New York, he joined ASLA in 2009 as its chief financial officer and continues in that role as well. Michael is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Geneseo with a B.S. in Accounting. He also obtained the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) certification and the Certified Global Management Accountant (CGMA) certification from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Before joining ASLA, Michael worked for CFO To Go and Price Waterhouse (currently PricewaterhouseCoopers) in various management, auditing, and accounting roles. What you’ll learn about in this episode: How the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has served its trade association members across the country since 1899 How the ASLA is providing assistance to members through the global pandemic, including free membership to students How the ASLA has been offering webinars to assist members, and how the pandemic outbreak has impacted the ASLA’s magazine publication process How ASLA has made the transition to remote work, and how they recently went through a major renovation process on their building How the pandemic forced the ASLA to cancel all of their spring activities and summits, and how they are adapting to the disruption How the ASLA’s annual trade show brings thousands of members together in destination locations and takes attendees out into the host city What other offerings the annual trade show shares with attendees, and how Saturdays at the show are particularly unique How the ASLA brings in student volunteers and offers them credit for each hour the student volunteers work How each year the ASLA offers a “legacy project” for high school student groups, and how they solicit show vendors to donate equipment to the project What new offerings the ASLA is offering, including a social media campaign to create ten minute TED talks Additional resources: Website: www.asla.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michael-o-brien-35583046/