2026 NIRSA + IDEA® World

Show Them Why This Matters

Make the Case to Attend the 2026 NIRSA + IDEA® World Conference & Expo

Investing in your professional development benefits both you and your organization. The 2026 NIRSA + IDEA® World Conference & Expo offers practical learning, new ideas, and role-specific experiences you can bring home to strengthen your programs, teams, and communities.

Choose the category that best fits your work to access a tailored “Convince Your Boss” toolkit—with talking points, email templates, and worksheets designed to help secure approval and communicate the return on investment.

Campus Recreation

This toolkit is designed to help you make a strong case to your supervisor by showing how the conference directly supports student success and the evolving work of campus recreation. It highlights how attending will strengthen your programs, develop your student staff, improve operations, and equip you with actionable strategies that you can apply when you return.

Fitness

The NIRSA + IDEA® World partnership offers expanded certifications, hands-on workshops, and evidence-based sessions. Use this toolkit to demonstrate how attending boosts your skills, elevates your programs, and brings back techniques that improve client engagement and wellbeing.

Community: Military, YMCA, and other recreational organizations

Show how the conference supports community-focused recreation through stronger programming, improved operations, and staff development. This toolkit helps you make the case for attending by outlining benefits you can apply immediately across your organization.

Make the case for developing your team’s skills and connections: Show your boss why you need to be at NIRSA 2025.

Thriving campus recreation departments know that continuous skills development and idea sharing are essential to a team’s ability to pivot, leverage opportunities, and overcome challenges. With staff and student professional development budgets at risk of being trimmed down or cut entirely, it’s crucial to showcase how your professional work innovates and reflects an understanding of the absolute best practices in the field.

When you request institutional support from your supervisor or administrator, feel free to use the tools we’ve put together to help you build your case. These tools include a benefits worksheet, a budget worksheet, and a sample letter for your supervisor.

  • When submitting a proposal to your supervisor or administration, clearly outline the connection between the needs of your department and institution with the benefits of attending the 2025 NIRSA Conference & Campus Rec Expo. Emphasize that you will leave NIRSA 2025 with the knowledge and resources necessary to meet the needs of your campus.
  • Review how your planned appointments with exhibitors will allow you to develop connections that improve your campus community’s student experience, and which will ultimately save your institution money. Consider the value of learning new best practices, making new contacts, and gaining new insights and ideas from the educational sessions you’ll attend. Remember to also highlight the specific skills, knowledge, and experiences you can immediately bring back to your organization.

Showing that you can put the connections and knowledge you acquired at NIRSA 2025 into action straightaway makes it easier for your supervisor or administration to support your attendance at the conference. So, download the toolkit, customize your letter, and fill out your expenses and benefits worksheets!

We’ll see you in Orlando!

Any questions?

Please contact a NIRSA Staff member in the Learning Department with any questions.

Thanks to Our Sponsors
Thanks to our NIRSA Sponsors!

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