About the Program
2026 WALKER BROADCAST MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
The Walker Broadcast Management Institute is now in its 27th year. The 2026 Institute marks the third year of another 3-year cycle (although you may join the cycle at any time) and is designed for broadcast managers and those seeking or being prepared for broadcast management positions.
The 2026 session will be held April 14-16, 2026 in Madison.
For registration information please call the WBA office: 608-255-2600
Check back for 2026 agenda.
2026 AGENDA
Day 1
Developing the People Around You – A One-Day Program for Broadcasting Professionals
In broadcasting, careers don’t follow a straight line—they unfold as a journey, filled with milestones, detours, and opportunities to grow with and through others. This one-day program is designed to help you reflect on your own professional journey while strengthening your ability to support and develop those around you.
Through interactive discussions and hands-on practice, you will:
- Explore your professional goals and values, clarifying the direction of your career.
- Learn what peer coaching is (and isn’t), and discover the many ways it can benefit you and your colleagues.
- Build practical coaching skills in listening, questioning, and giving constructive feedback.
- Gain insight into how coaching can bridge generational differences in today’s diverse broadcasting workforce.
Whether you are an emerging leader, an experienced professional, or someone who wants to contribute more to your team’s success, this program equips you with tools to enhance both your own growth and the growth of those you work with.
Join us for a day of learning, reflection, and skill-building that will help you bring out the best in yourself and in others.
Presented by Betsy Hagan
Betsy Hagan is an independent consultant specializing in organizational effectiveness, talent development, and executive coaching. Her background includes 25 years of executive leadership experience in corporate human resources, operations, and program management with Hewitt Associates LLC, a $3 billion dollar HR consulting and outsourcing and Baxter Healthcare, a $10 billion-dollar leading manufacturer of medical products.
Betsy has advised on a variety of business improvements in the areas of strategic planning, restructuring, talent development, and cost management. Today she leads CPED’s Foundations of Management Certificate focused on helping managers motivate their teams, influence stakeholders, leverage resources, and enhance business processes.
Betsy is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management and the American Productivity and Quality Control Council. With a B.A. in communications from Eastern Illinois University, she is also certified in executive coaching, change management, performance consulting, and instructional design.
(Evening – dinner with group – Porta Bella)
Day 2
Leading with Emotional Intelligence
Research by the Carnegie Institute concluded: “15% of success is technical skills – 85% is people skills.” Emotional Intelligence is all about people skills – how well you know yourself and your emotions and how well you read and interact with others and their emotions. Learn about how the brain, the body and emotions affect each other, and then how to better manage your own emotions and the emotions of others so you can have clearer, more accurate communications that create cooperation and collaboration in the workplace. Each participant will complete an emotional intelligence assessment in class and will receive access to the online version of the assessment to complete in six months to measure their progress. This assessment reflects one’s style or approach to emotions. Participants will also complete an assessment that will help them determine specific skills areas to develop for a higher EQ.
What you will learn:
–The Five Domains of Emotional Intelligence
–54 Characteristics of high and low emotional intelligence
–Tools for increasing emotional intelligence
–Practice in identifying emotions in others
Presented by Patricia Clason
For more than 40 years, Patricia Clason has traveled across the continent doing speeches, workshops, and media appearances as a professional speaker, trainer, consultant, writer, and coach giving more than 5,000 presentations for corporations, associations, government agencies. and non-profit organizations. Now the Director of the Center for Creative Learning which offers emotional intelligence programs for personal and professional development, Patricia has written many articles, training programs. and personal growth seminars and is a sought-after guest for radio and television.
As a consultant and business coach she works with large and small companies, as well as individuals, in the areas of start-up, marketing, and management skills, and career building.
Patricia was the first to receive the Registered Corporate Coach designation from the National Association of Business Coaches (now the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches) and founder of the Business Coaching Certificate program at the School of Continuing Education at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
A member of the boards of several non-profit organizations, Patricia is active in both charitable and civic organizations.
Patricia’s most recently published book, Speaking of Success, is co-authored with Jack Canfield, Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard. She is featured in “So What Do You Do?” Joel Comm’s book about the geniuses next door. Her forthcoming book, Everyday EQ, will feature tips for emotional intelligence in our everyday relationships.
Author of Taking It Lightly, an emotional intelligence weekend program, Healing Warrior Hearts, a similar program offered free for veterans, and the Successful Living Basic Training. Patricia has written more than 50 programs for personal and professional development.
To keep all this together, and still have time for her family and herself, Patricia must truly practice what she teaches in the areas of communication, time management, and motivation, as well as business marketing, management, emotional intelligence, and ethics.
Evening guest speakers at the Fluno Center
Wisconsin by the Numbers: Perspectives on the Economy now and into the Future
Presented by Matt Kures, UW-Extension
Wisconsin is facing demographic and economic shifts that impact communities, businesses and labor markets. A rising share of residents approaching retirement age, disparate rates of urban and rural development, and technological changes will influence labor availability, economic growth, sources of revenue, housing and transportation demand, service delivery and health care needs throughout the State. This presentation will explore these changes in greater detail and consider responses at the local, regional and state levels.
Day 3
Strategic Marketing for Broadcast Media Professionals
This presentation explores how broadcast media can stand out in a crowded market. Brian Lee, APR, of Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media, will discuss how to strengthen and protect your brand, craft compelling messages, identify and engage audiences across multiple platforms, set up and budget for outbound and inbound marketing tactics, and use AI and other tools.
Presented by Brian Lee.
Brian Lee, APR, is the president of Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media and Revelation Events. He also is a social media and marketing instructor at Madison College, a marketing instructor in the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s UpStart program for female and minority entrepreneurs, and a digital marketing specialist for the National Center for Economic Gardening. A serial entrepreneur, Brian also runs MadisonStartups.com and EatDrinkMadison.com. He graduated from UW-Madison with a degree in journalism and major in strategic communications and also holds an MBA from Sam Houston State University.
The Institute fee is $595 for the first two people from the same company and $400 for those over three from the same company. Fees include the classes and evening presentations, all materials, daytime meals and two evening meals. No cancellations within a week of the Institute.
We would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the estate of William R. Walker which graciously donated funds to endow the WBA Foundation Management Institute. The gift is the largest single contribution ever received by the Foundation.
About William Walker