Inside SSP’s 2025 Annual Meeting: Chefs Reveal Their Game-Changing Insights You Never Saw Coming
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
The SSP Annual Meeting is typically my first conference after the spring semester ends and grades have been entered. It’s a welcome opportunity to gather with colleagues in anticipation of the different pace of the academic summer and a more focused time for research and writing.
While uncertainty was a recurring theme throughout the sessions this year, what stood out most was the collective commitment to keep moving forward, navigating as best we can in an ever-shifting environment, with the wisdom to change course when necessary. I felt this especially in the “Charleston Trendspotting” session, which I co-led with Leah Hinds. We took as our theme “perseverance and resilience” and guided workshop attendees through a series of exercises to identify what society needs from scholarly publishing, its enduring value, and how to counter threats to mission and vision. It was heartening to see participants recognize that things are unknown and uncertain, and then develop constructive paths for moving forward as best we can. The conversations were honest and insightful with a palpable sense of both urgency and hope.
