Acronym

Was hoping to do multiple posts for each session/activity today, but with limited wifi access and the Hilton carrier crashing, was hard to get connected today. So, here's a quick dump of my Sunday...

The opening musical act was well done and made me laugh a few times, but I hate this stuff. Not sure why the ASAE feels the need to put on a big show at 8:30 in the morning. High cheese factor. Zero value. Dump it already. Anyway.

The general session with the Woodruffs was touching and inspiring on a personal level. Simply amazing. However, there was zero takeaway. This was a major step back from Jim Collins' opening in Boston. He kicked major ass and I walked out of there pumped (and bought both his books and the 7 Measures book). Lots of value. I guess it is nice to have the compelling human stories (and I enjoyed the Woodruffs), but it was kind of a waste. Oh well.

After the general session, I jumped over to the informal Bloggercon gathering. Was great fun to share tips and stories with other bloggers and wannabes. Lisa Junker and Hilary Marsh have posted a bunch of notes from that session. (In the photo, organizer Ben Martin has the stripped shirt, and JNot is in red.)

Here's Jackie Huba engaging the audience regarding member evangelists. Was a great session! Must buy her books now. And, best of all, she popped in a slide giving props to the IGDA's wiki (and referenced Jeff de Cagna's great AssociationSocialMedia.com resource). Nice suprise :)

After Jackie, I jumped into the CEO/Insanity session, but it was mainly about legal counsel stuff, so I bailed and jumped into the learning lab on growing membership. Was informative, but presenters were pretty flat with the delivery...

Finally, since I hail all the way up from Canada, I was invited to the international reception. Was a nice chance to connect with many of the foreign attendees. Surprisingly, there's only ~200 attendees out of 7000 that are here from outside the US. Seems like there should be more...

Here, Paul from Zambia is working the room.