More than 900 professionals from museums around New England, along with consultants and students in museum studies programs, converged on Mystic this week for the 98th annual NEMA Conference.

NEMA stands for the New England Museum Association, and the conference is based in different locations each year. It was last held in Mystic in 2003.

The conference, which wrapped on Friday, offered three days of professional development for everybody from curators to business managers, fundraisers to exhibit designers and fabricators. This year's event, based at the Mystic Marriott, included sessions on "Museums and Civic Discourse," "Engaging Young Professionals and Millennials," and "Now Trending: Your Museum?" and such demonstrations as the basics of moldmaking and casting and "The Front Door: Does It Entice You In?"

The theme was museums and social action, and topics ran from nuts-and-bolts issues to larger, more visionary ones, noted Dawn Salerno, who is on the NEMA board and is deputy director for public engagement and operations at the Mystic Museum of Art. (Susan Funk, executive vice president of Mystic Seaport, is also on the NEMA board and is a past president.)

Participants could get out to local venues, too. The Mashantucket Pequot Museum, for instance, offered a special behind-the-scenes tour for conference participants, and about 55 people took part. They toured the exhibitions, collection spaces and archaeology labs, and they got to taste food from museum chef Sherry Pocknett. Some people said that tour was one of the principal reasons they came to the conference, which, museum director Jason Mancini says, "was quite a compliment."

Mystic Seaport, meanwhile, hosted the opening reception on Wednesday, which segued from a gathering on the Charles W. Morgan to one inside the seaport's new exhibition building. On Thursday morning, about 35 people gathered in the exhibition building for a session about the steps that the seaport went through in creating that space, with architects, mechanical engineers and Mystic Seaport staff all on hand.

"We're, of course, thrilled to have the conference here (in Mystic)," says Stephen C. White, president of Mystic Seaport. "There are so many museums in New London County and beyond in southern Connecticut that it's just a fantastic opportunity to be with our peers and to talk and attend workshops and help us do our work even better. ...

The greatest benefit for me is the networking with other museum directors, where we can share candidly, 'Gee, how did you deal with this?,' 'How did you deal with that?'"

Mancini notes that the Mashantucket Pequot Museum had to recently shift to seasonal closures and to redefine its position and vision. It's also developing more diversified financial support and will create a board of directors. Mancini was part of a conference lunch with directors and trustees from various venues where they talked through, among other matters, some of these issues, how to navigate them, and what the opportunities are.

"People are willing to troubleshoot and problem solve with their experiences," he says.

Salerno offers similar sentiments, saying the idea is that, by providing museum professionals the chance to have this dialogue, NEMA is generating more knowledgeable, connected and inspired workers who can do their jobs well and create great institutions.

A final note: At the conference's closing lunch, NEMA gave a lifetime achievement award to Jeffrey Andersen, director of the Florence Griswold Museum.