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SOPHE’s 60th Annual Meeting, in Philadelphia, “An Invitation to Innovation,” included a mix of enlightening keynote presentations and timely topical and professional update concurrent sessions. The first keynote presentation was by Reed Tuckson, “Innovations in Health & Health are: Making History and Improving Health --- the United Health Example.” His main message was to do our work in different ways. While we cannot control demographics and age, we can control excess medical inflation and excess utilization.  Utilization is our (SOPHE’s) challenge; preparing individuals to make the right decision for themselves at every stage of life. He pointed out that we need to work hard at creating social norms that put priority on healthy behaviors. We need to get connected with community groups and agencies as well as make new partnerships, such as with the food industry to cut cost of fresh food distribution. We need to do better at assisting individuals with their personal health decisions through personalized messages. The final plenary presentation by Lisa Orrell, “Capitalizing on the strengths of the millennial generation: Building a New Public Health Workforce,” provided a different perspective on the generations; particularly how to work with Millennials (Generation Y, or those born since 1980) in the workforce. After members of the audience identified their own category as members of the “Boomers,”, “ Generation Jones,” “Generation X,” or the “Millennials,” the speaker focused on why business is clamoring for Millennials, and how to keep them --- important concepts as we look to build our public health workforce. We need to keep in mind that the Millennials’ psychological contract is with the relationships embedded within the organization, not the organization itself. They want the same things as other generations but are less patient. To best manage Millennial talent it is important to be sensitive to needs (provide life change guidance 3-5 years into employment), treat them with respect , create an environment for sharing (include mentorship programs), communicate often (provide structural clarity, technical connectedness, and group work with shifting tasks), provide rewards and recognition (create a “praise culture”) . We can all benefit from these strategies in our quest to strengthen our public health workforce. Other highlights included the membership meeting, awards banquet at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the poster session, at which our own Melissa Thomas was a presenter.
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