The conference is winding down. The last sessions have been held, I exchanged my last business card this evening and the swag has been packed. It's always bittersweet at the end. I'm very ready to get back home to the Sweet Boy and the Schmoo Cat but am very sad to be leaving friends.
So much has happened over the past year that I owe almost entirely to my involvement in IAVM. I was talking to a couple of long time IAVM members at lunch today about my speech I gave at the New Member orientation. The speech wasn't much different than the one I gave last year. Well, it was way different since I kind of made it up as I went along, but the main point was the same.
You absolutely need to try this crazy thing called a conference out more than once.
Heck, while you're at it, go ahead and sign up for membership in the organization too. You'll thank me later for that advice, I promise.
I said that last year. I preached on about how your first year is the time to study the map and make sure you know where you're going. Your second year is when you start heading down the path. It's the time between your second and third year when you start taking the back roads and scenic routes.
It's the scenic routes that take you by the most amazing places.
It is because of my involvement in IAVM that lead me to meet a very important mentor. She is a mentor I needed desperately at that point in my career. It is also involvement that lead to my participation during the past Superbowl that lead me to meet some very awesome individuals. Individuals that might lead to new opportunities some day, new experiences and new lessons learned. It is because of my involvement in IAVM that I discovered Venue Manager School and attended on scholarship. That is an opportunity I'm not sure I would have received other wise.
All of this is because I came back. I can't imagine a world in which I found something else after trying these shoes on only once.
I suppose I don't want to imagine that world.
2 comments:
You are so full of wisdom, and I love that you have a way of sharing it, saying it how it is...
I also love your sharing of the first year is about learning the map, the second year, the main roads, but not until the third year do you start to take the scenic route... I can so relate. It all takes time. Growth.
Glad you had a great time, and you've got hot legs too woman!! :D
I'm hoping people can relate to my comment about the map. That's it to the "T". I was trying my best to step away from things this past week and look at it through my old eyes. It's so hard to imagine being there again. Really, so much has changed.
And thanks - about my legs! I owe it all to 3 seasons of soccer in Jr. High... or maybe marching band... or maybe the scary death steps going between one building to the next where I work. :)
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