Spring Meeting

LPA Spring Meeting
May 5-7, 2025
Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City
Arlington, VA

Join the following members:

RESERVE YOUR ROOM TODAY!

The LPA Spring Meeting will be held May 5-7 at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City in Arlington, VA. There will be ample opportunities to network with fellow members during receptions and optional outings, as well as during the education program. Over the course of a day and a half, LPA Members will garner calls-to-action for both their company and personally.

Immediately following the LPA Spring Meeting, the LPA will hold the bi-annual LPA Capitol Hill Day on May 7th, giving members an opportunity to visit with their lawmakers. The Ritz-Carlton will have a limited number of rooms at the LPA rate for May 7th so please don't delay in booking your room. Please let Clark know if you plan to attend the LPA Capitol Hill Day, or let us know when registering for the Spring Meeting.

Register Online Here or Download the Registration Form PDF

TENTATIVE Schedule
Monday, May 5
6:00-8:00 PM Welcome Reception

Tuesday, May 6
6:00-7:30 AM Morning Meet-Up (Walk & Coffee, sponsored by the Women's Forum Committee)
7:30-9:15     Breakfast/registration
9:00-9:15 Welcome & Self-introductions
9:15-10:30     Mike Abrashoff, It’s Your Ship – Achieving Breakthrough Performance
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-11:45 High-level Govt. Official TBD
11:45-1:15 PM Networking Lunch
1:15-2:15     LPA Scientific Advisory Panel
2:15-2:30 Break
2:30-4:00 Rob Smith & Tony Hobbs – Government/Regulatory Affairs Update
5:00-6:30 Reception & Dinner
7:00-10:00 PM    Washington D.C. Monuments Tour (optional event)

Wednesday, May 7
8:00-9:00 AM Breakfast
9:00-10:00 TBD
10:00-11:15 Rich Karlgaard, Navigating the Future
11:00 AM Meeting Adjourns

LPA Capitol Hill Day
12:00-5:00 PM Meetings (and lunch) on Capitol Hill

Meeting REgistration fees Same fees as last year!
LPA Members
1st Attendee: $1,165
2nd Attendee: $ 995
3rd Attendee: $ 895
Guest/Spouse: $ 250
Non-Member: $1,300

Optional Events:
Tuesday, May 6, 6:00-7:30 PM
The Women's Forum Committee sponsorsed Morning Meet-Up gives members an opportunity to get to know eachother before the general session starts. FREE

Tuesday, May 6, 7:00-10:00 PM
D.C. Monuments Twilight Tour with Old Town Trolley Tours, which will pick members up at the Ritz-Carlton and head to D.C., allowing members to get out and walk around some of the most iconic monuments. The tour is approximately 2 ½ hours and is a live, fully narrated tour. Each Conductor is a licensed tour guide.
Cost is $70

Register Online Here or Download the Registration Form PDF

LPA Capitol Hill Day
Wednesday, May 7
12:00-4:00pm EDT
Are you attending LPA Capitol Hill Day? Please log in and visit www.lpanet.org/hillday for all the information you will need to plan your visit to the Hill.

There will be a limited number of rooms available at The Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City for the night of May 7, so please do not delay and book your room today!

About the Hotel
Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City
1250 S Hayes St, Arlington, VA 22202
RESERVE YOUR ROOM HERE
LPA Group Rate: $339 single/double deluxe room
Or call central reservations and mention the "LPA Spring Meeting"
Phone: (703) 415-5000
Deadline is April 12, 2025
Check-in: 4:00pm
Check-out: 11:00am

The closest airport near The Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). DCA is located approximately 2.0 Miles from the hotel.

The Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City offers an experience that beautifully blends modern and traditional touches. Located minutes from Washington, D.C. the hotel allows guests to enjoy easy access to D.C.'s iconic landmarks, monuments, museums, and attractions.

Keynote Speakers

Mike Abrashoff
Former Commander, USS Benfold and author of It’s Your Ship

It's Your Ship - Achieving Breakthrough Performance
When Mike Abrashoff took command of the USS Benfold, morale was low, turnover was high and the ship’s performance ranked near the bottom of the Pacific Fleet. Just twelve months later Benfold was ranked #1 – using the very same crew. The lesson was clear – leadership matters and culture is everything. This inspiring talk is for every individual and organization looking for practical and usable ways to take organizational performance to new heights. In Mike’s case, he realized that before the ship’s performance could change, he had to change his leadership style. Mike worked to create a culture of trust and empower his crew to take charge and use ingenuity and initiative to improve every aspect of the way things were done. Top down leadership is dead, so when the crew would present a problem, Mike became famous for responding “What would YOU do? It’s YOUR ship!” Mike’s presentation leaves audiences with the tools and inspiration to accomplish big goals.

About Mike
Mike Abrashoff was the most-junior officer in the Pacific Fleet when he took command of the near-worst performing ship. Twelve months later, the USS Benfold was the best ship in the entire Navy – using the same crew. The story of that stunning transformation has lessons for every organization: leadership matters – and culture is everything. Mike’s written four books – his first, It’s Your Ship, has sold over 1.4 million copies. His Leadership Roadmap offers clear, battle-tested, and actionable steps. Mike shows people at every level of the organization how to engage and take incremental steps toward change that can make a dramatic difference at work. Mike is clear, “I didn’t turn the ship around – my crew did that. What I did was to create an environment where they felt safe, empowered and supported. When you do that, anything is possible.”

In many ways, what Mike was able to do with the USS Benfold was an extreme example of the same problems facing many organizations today. That’s why dozens of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company have cited Mike’s story as an inspiring lesson for business. Leaders especially identify with Mike’s being accountable for the results in an environment where he couldn’t make the rules.

“When my crew came to me with a problem, I’d say ‘It’s your ship – how would you fix it?’.” Mike focused on the one thing he could influence: his crew’s attitude, because culture is the ultimate competitive weapon for any organization.

Mike’s established a set of management principles that he calls The Leadership Roadmap. At the core of his leadership approach on Benfold was a process of replacing command and control with commitment and cohesion, and engaging the hearts, minds, and loyalties of workers with conviction and humility. “The most important thing that a captain can do is to see the ship through the eyes of the crew. The idea is to empower every individual to share the responsibility of achieving excellence.”

By every measure, these principles achieved breakthrough results: turnover decreased to an unprecedented 1%; the rate of promotions tripled; and the crew slashed operating expenses by 25%. Regarded as the finest ship in the Pacific Fleet, Benfold won the prestigious Spokane Trophy for having the highest degree of combat readiness. This remarkable turnaround was accomplished by the very same crew that had performed so poorly just months before.

Mike is author of four books. His first, It’s Your Ship, has a timeless message: don’t use outside forces that stand in your way as excuses – control the things you can influence and amazing results will happen. His next books, It’s Our Ship and Get Your Ship Together, showed how these principles have been put into action by business leaders in their own organizations. Mike's latest book, Ship Happens (co-authored with Stacey Cunningham), serves as a guide for leaders, detailing his strategies for transforming USS Benfold into the top-performing ship.

Mike He inspires audiences to rethink their beliefs about leadership and organizational culture and focuses on engagement, execution, change, safety, diversity, leadership, teamwork, innovation, accountability and more.

Mike Abrashoff is the founder of Aegis Performance Group, a consulting firm which works with and supports leaders as they address leadership, talent and performance challenges within their organizations. Mike and his team prompt leaders at all levels to re-imagine their leadership thinking and create new ways to elevate individual, team and organizational performance.

Tony Hobbs
Associate Vice President
Platinum Advisors

Government/Regulatory Affairs Update

About Tony
With over a decade of political and policy experience, Tony provides a breadth of tactical knowledge and expertise on a wide range of issues. Tony provides Platinum’s clients with real-time, in-depth analysis and updates on key policy and political discussions in DC and beyond.

Prior to joining the Platinum team, Tony was the Legislative Director in the office of US Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01). There, he directed the legislative efforts of the Congresswoman’s DC staff, formulated and implemented the Member’s legislative agenda, and managed an expansive legislative portfolio including appropriations, energy, labor, and financial services policies. Tony also has extensive experience in the political arena – directing the field efforts for successful congressional campaigns that involved massive voter outreach and volunteer coordination efforts.

When not in D.C., Tony can be found sailing the Potomac River in his small sloop, Rocinante, or hiking in the Shenandoah forests.

Rich Karlgaard
Former publisher and futurist, forbes media

Navigating the Future: The Intersection of Technology, Economic Trends, and Politics

Rich will explore how technological advancements are reshaping economies by driving innovation, automation, and new business models. In addition, he addresses the latest economic trends impacting business growth and examines how these shifts are deeply affected by political decisions and regulations.

About Rich
One of the most influential and respected forecasters at the intersection of technology, economic, political and business worlds, Rich Karlgaard advises audiences on how to harness technology’s accelerating powers and navigate the unprecedented economic and political uncertainty of the early 2020s.

As both a decades-long Forbes veteran and advisory board member for one of the world’s top artificial intelligence companies, Karlgaard brings a 360-degree insight to his audiences. He is frequent guest on cable news' popular business shows, such as Your World with Neil Cavuto. He is a co-founder of Garage Technology Partners (with Guy Kawasaki) and Silicon Valley’s original public business forum, the Churchill Club. For the latter, Karlgaard won an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Karlgaard’s book on innovation culture, The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success, rapidly became a top seller in the category of Strategy and Competition. Management guru, Tom Peters wrote: “The Soft Edge is brilliantly organized and written—a peerless message for our chaotic times.” The late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, wrote: “Rich Karlgaard is a navigator for the rest of us.”

His 2015 book, Team Genius: The New Science of High Performing Organizations, was published in 2015 and hailed by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft and Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx.

In his monthly Forbes Asia column, Tech Connector, he provides an honest and incisive assessment of technology’s role as a competitive differentiator in national, regional and local economies. Rich brings the same candor and vision to his bespoke and wildly thought-provoking presentations, as he reveals a comprehensive analysis of the disruptive forces that are reshaping your industry. Rich equips today’s leaders with timely insights that help them adapt to the era of technological and political disruption and thrive in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.

Karlgaard's most recent book, Late Bloomers: The Hidden Strengths of Learning and Succeeding at Your Own Pace looks at the large number of people whose lives take a more circuitous route than our society tells us is the norm.

"Despite Aesop's warnings, our society still admires the hare more than the tortoise. We deify those who burst out of life's starting blocks and disdain those who take time to find their pace. But that's a colossal mistake, says Rich Karlgaard in his powerful new book. Drawing on a deep reservoir of science, Karlgaard shows that many of us — perhaps most of us — peak well after our wunderkind years as we acquire the wisdom, resilience, and equanimity necessary for genuine achievement. Deftly written and deeply researched, Late Bloomers will change the conversation about success in America."—Daniel H. Pink, author of When

Rob Smith
Senior Vice President
Platinum Advisors

Government/Regulatory Affairs Update

About Rob
A Republican operative who originally hails from Oklahoma but now splits his time between Oxford, MS and Washington, DC, Rob represents a diverse client base, including the defense, healthcare, tribal issues, environmental, financial services and transportation sectors.

Rob began his career on Capitol Hill as the military legislative aide to House Armed Services Committee Member, Congressman Joel Hefley (R-CO), where he worked on defense procurement and military construction issues. He later went on to serve as legislative director for Congressman Wes Watkins (R-OK), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, where he focused on trade and tax issues.

Upon leaving the Hill, Rob joined Sun Microsystems, where he represented the company on numerous legislative and regulatory matters, including domestic and international tax, broadband, employee compensation and benefits and accounting and export controls.

Throughout his time in Washington, D.C., Rob has remained politically active. In 2004 and 2008, he served as a professional volunteer in the Official Proceedings Division of the Republican National Committee. In that role, Rob was responsible for the logistics and hospitality of over twenty members of Congress and VIPs. Additionally, he serves on the steering and finance committees for many elected officials and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Club Association.

Rob earned his B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and M.B.A. from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.

Getting To & Around Alexandria, VA
https://visitalexandria.com/plan/getting-around/

SAVE THE DATE! 2026 LPA Spring Meeting will be April 19-21 at the historic Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina.

Not sure what to expect? Click the picture below for pictures of past LPA meetings on our Facebook Page.

Can't wait to see your colleagues again? Click the picture below for pictures from past LPA meetings on our Facebook Page.