OTTUMWA — People who want to get along with others could get a lot out of next week’s Indian Hills Community College diversity conference.

So says Norma Rosales Heilmann, the coordinator of the Indian Hills Regional Language Learning Center. The school is sponsoring “Many Faces; One Vision” at its Ottumwa campus all day April 4.

Though nurses and social workers can get “continuing education credits,” she said, everyday citizens gain knowledge “for the purpose of working together, just to have an understanding of why we do things different, and to hopefully see some of the similarities [between cultures].”

Agencies and presenters will discuss diversity as it relates to topics like religion, health, age, education, disability, immigration, education, gender and the workforce.

There are four class times, or “breakout sessions” available during the day with a large menu of options.

For example, in session one, from 10:10-11 a.m., conference-goers can attend one of 12 different mini-conferences ranging from “Understanding radical Islamist hatred” to “Deaf culture” to a panel discussion of “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender” issues. There are more than 40 total subjects to choose from.

“We try to do the sessions based on what’s going on in the area or in our country,” said Heilmann. “They can network and get information regarding the particular session.”

That’s one of the reasons organizers tried to make the breakout sessions so diverse.

“This time, we will have a keynote speaker where we are not basing our conference on their theme,” said Heilmann. “We’re just trying to see the response of the people as we try to provide what the community needs.”

The diversity conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. with keynote speaker Stephen G. Bloom.

Bloom may be best known as the author of “Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America.”

For that book, Bloom spent time in the small northeast Iowa community of Postville, where Jewish businessmen started a successful kosher meat packing plant. This created an interesting, and at times, unhappy or confused community filled with both everyday Iowans and very religious Jewish people.

Now a journalism professor at the University of Iowa, his talk in Ottumwa will be about the lessons he learned from his Postville experience.

The conference, which includes lunch, is $10; it runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. with registration starting at 7:30 a.m. For more information, call (800) 726-2585, extension 5245.

Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.