As blogged about last week, Your Friendly Neighborhood blogger asked a handful of Summit attendees to write about their experiences in Atlanta. The first one is today, from Mellissa Ruryk, talking about the preconference activities and the official opening last night.
Getting here was half the fun—I flew United which is a lot different from Westjet (think Southwest Airlines), starting with the $26.25 baggage charge. Vancouver to Chicago on Friday was fine—Chicago to Atlanta later that afternoon was a bit different, as it stretched into the night. A total of 11 text messages kept me advised of my gate changes and delays, so a 2-hour layover in ORD turned into a 5-hour delay in my arrival. Oh well, I was on my way to the Summit and the anticipation carried me through. This is my fourth Summit in a row, and I’m out to beat Linda Oestreich’s record of 30.
I live in Vancouver on the “Wet Coast” of Canada. I had carefully packed my sunscreen and the two bathing suits I knew I would need for hopping in and out of the outdoor pool on Saturday when I arrived. While I did learn that the Hyatt pool was being retooled, we were apparently allowed to use the Westin’s pool next door … not such a big deal. But instead of Hotlanta, I arrived in Wetlanta. Big pout. Oh, well, that just meant I had time to shop and store up a few ZZZs before the onslaught began.
Sunday morning started out a bit of a rush as Leadership Day begins at 8:00 AM. An awesome introduction to the day’s events while outgoing President Alan Housser announced recipients for the Distinguished Chapter Service Awards, Distinguished SIG Service Awards, Pacesetter Awards, and Communities of Distinction and Excellence. Not too surprisingly, many of those names called out were there at the Leadership Day! Hmmm … wonder if there is any correlation? After introductions of significant office staff members, and incoming volunteer office holders, we got down to business. There were nine topics for two progressions; the one in the morning had time for us to attend two tables, and the one in the afternoon, three. Because my erstwhile VP was attending the Summit with me, we divvied up the sessions to ensure the greatest coverage so we could bring our new knowledge back to our chapter, and were gratified to preview the new Community Handbook.
At lunch, Registration opened and we were given our lovely 60th Anniversary pin (striking and substantial), new book bags, the official program, and entry tags (hint: attending Leadership Day means you can get at the Banquet tables to arrange seating earlier) and meet office staff face to face after a year of interacting only online. After the second progression, the basic duties of a community treasurer were covered by outgoing Treasurer Esa Moyna, CFO Greg Larsen, and incoming Treasurer Jane Wilson. LD was concluded with incoming President Nicky Bleiel outlining her vision for the coming year.
After rushing off to squeeze in a quick dinner (at the Hard Rock Café), we returned just in time to attend the opening general session with the absolutely astounding David Pogue, author of the “Missing Manuals” series. One word: bombastic. Watch out for his new series on Nova TV—he showed some awesome clips about the science of materials. Boring? Hardly. So energetic, entertaining, and educational … and his whole presentation was summed up in one word: CLARITY. He described the nightmare of having to create the “missing manual” for Windows8: two completely different UIs for the simple “new” operating system, both called by the same name.
But wait, there’s more. Next were the Welcome Reception and the opening of the Exhibit Hall: food, and drinks, and vendors, and swag. And old friends and new ones, learning about Evernote Hello (scan a business card to create a new contact) or enter their email address and view their Linkedin profile with a keystroke or two. Lanyrd, QR scans, and Twitter, oh my!
And finally, as that Exhibit Hall slowly emptied, the Tweetup started. Again, Atlanta skies opened up so sharing a van ride over to the Park Bar seemed preferable to drowning. Another 25 to 30 peeps were there, tweeting pictures and making new friends over food and drink. One SIG group met there as well, the IDL SIG, and someone had the bright idea of replicating their icon of the light bulb to announce their presence. Cute—watch for it at the Communities Reception on Monday night, covered in tomorrow’s blog. A pleasant meander home along Atlanta’s downtown streets—this time dry—was a refreshing and quiet conclusion to a long and varied day.