Why Attend the Fine Point Off-Site?
Our program has been carefully curated to address what school communications directors need today.
Plenty of conferences offer professional development on improving communications. None, though, focuses its full programming on improving as a communications director.
Our presentations focus tightly on what pertains most to your job. We also promote your advancement: The Off-Site will prepare you better for stepping up within independent schools.
The consistent aim and quality of these sessions can’t be found anywhere else.
Our session presenters are established leaders in independent schools; most are marketing and communications directors themselves.
Our keynote speaker, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, brings an off-campus perspective that is both inspirational and relevant to our work.
And our closing speaker is a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator who will aid you in taking purpose and intention from the day.
The issues facing a communications director, and the discretion they require, can promote a sense of professional distance, even isolation.
Along with professional development, Off-Site participants have the opportunity to meet and talk shop with dozens of peers from around the country.
Gathering with others to discuss the challenges and triumphs of the role can be not just helpful but also restorative!
Our cap on registrations invites greater openness and contributions among participants. We really want you to get to know your colleagues and learn from their experiences!
Hopefully, the connections formed at the Fine Point Off-Site will extend into the NAIS Conference, where you’ll recognize more faces among a sea of people.
What’s more, keep the connection going through the school year by sharing trusted vendors, solutions to recurrent issues, and novel approaches to your work!
Unlike conferences that restrict attendance to schools of a certain size, mission or region, the Off-Site is open to communications directors of any independent school.
If the program speaks to you and your professional interests, you are welcome!
Unique among conferences, the Fine Point Off-Site has no sponsors or exhibitors selling anything, no presenters with a vested interest.
Our only goal — providing a day full of practical, actionable information — matches yours.
The registration fee covers all programming, Off-Site materials and any speaker handouts, two meals (breakfast and lunch), and coffee, tea, and soft drinks through the event.
If you already plan to attend the NAIS Conference, this professional development involves no separate travel commitment, either. Simply come to Seattle a day earlier!
With six workshop tracks, the Annual Conference’s packed program typically allows only a handful of sessions about communications.
The Off-Site’s singular focus, then, efficiently extends the opportunity to make the most of three days in Seattle.
Running simultaneously with the Off-Site is NAIS’s annual, day-long Heads’ Summit.
This creates an opportunity for communications directors flying to Seattle: If your Head is coming to the Summit, travel together and use the transit time to become better acquainted, personally and professionally.
Questions and Answers
Updated 10/3/25
Yes! We have a small block of rooms at the Westin Seattle. The room rate is $209 a night, plus taxes and fees — about one-third off the public rate.
This rate covers stays from Monday, Feb. 23, through Thursday, Feb. 26. (You can book just one night or up to all four.) So whether you’re coming only to the Off-Site or staying through the end of the NAIS Annual Conference, you’ll have good options.
After you complete your Off-Site sign-up, we will share the booking website with you by email.
Another option is to use one of NAIS’s hotels. Please note that NAIS’s rates are available only to people going to the Annual Conference. In fact, the conference sign-up form strongly encourages booking a room during registration.
Yes! These are covered on our registration form. Just make sure you are ticking the appropriate boxes. We will follow up with you as needed.
If you want to make doubly sure that we are informed, reach out to us.
Our registration form requests similar information as NAIS will ask in your conference registration. Both come from an abundance of care for your safety: We would use this information only if and when it would become necessary.
We know some of the Off-Site’s sessions would be useful for many communicators. However, our conference’s value lies not just in the presentations but also in the exchanges among attendees. These discussions are richer and more valuable when each person serves a similar role in their school.
As a result, only one person may register from each school. If we receive multiple registrations from a school, only the first will be accepted; the rest will be declined and refunded.
If your school has both a marketing director and a communications director, have a conversation with your colleague before either of you signs up.
More Questions?
Contact Fine Point Communications at hello@finepointcommunications.com.