NBAA is expecting the highest attendance to date for its next Leadership Conference, which will be held in Tucson, Ariz., from February 24 to 26. According to Josh Mesinger, a member of the association’s Corporate Aviation Management Committee, the conference’s role in developing the leadership skills of business aviation managers has become more critical as the industry faces challenges. These include recruiting and preparing a generation of leaders and addressing a changing relationship with its customers.

The conference program, designed around the mandates “influence, inspire and innovate,” features presentations from a variety of leadership and business process experts from outside the aviation sector. The conference begins on February 24 with a full-day professional development course on staffing needs and job-related training for aviation departments led by Dr. Daniel Prather. Other speakers include team leadership specialist Kristin Arnold, communications expert Bill Acheson, sports writer Ross Bernstein and former NFL quarterback Tom Flick.