Conference Overview

This past week I attended the Operations Leadership Workshop (OLW) Conference in Silver Spring/Bethesda, MD. This is the second of three conferences that I attend while I am in the Operations Leadership Development Program (OLDP). Conferences can bring fun and excitement, but they equally bring mixed feelings of dread, tiredness, and anxiety.

This conference was different from the last in that it was just OLDPs this time. Last time it was ALL of the leadership programs and some 600 people. We were at a not to shabby 157 for this one. The week kicked off on Sunday night with a welcome message, team meetings, pictures, and dinner. This started the week long barrage of classes, forced socializing, and of course networking. If none of you have every been to a week long conference, it can be the most draining experience. By 9pm each night I was so tired, I thought I would just pass out from exhaustion. The constant interaction with other people while most of the time fun, can just plain wear you out. I am not just talking about my peers, but the rest of the people that were there. As they said, every interaction in an interview. I believe this is 100% true. They were for me so I can't imagine the other person wasn't paying attention. I did manage to make it out for the final night, but was so full from dinner and so tired from the long week, I walked back to the hotel at midnight. I don't know what it says when your team lead is partying harder than you are, but oh well.

I did walk away with more skills and a few interesting prospectives I didn't have before, which I guess is the whole point of these things. The highlight of the entire schedule was listening to our CEO, Bob Stevens, talk for an hour. Well, he talked for about 10 minutes and then took questions from the crowd for another 50 minutes. I know why he is the CEO, he has a LOT of charisma and is amazing to listen to. The best lecture we sat in on was one entitled, Micro Inequities. Absolutely fascinating subject and terrific speaker.

I also met my current class work group so I have names and faces. I got to mingle with the O's from Syracuse which is good so I know a few faces when I get there. :) For the most part, everyone was cool, but there are some that just make a plain old bad lasting impression. Thankfully, there are not many of this kind.

So, will I just be plain brilliant when I go back to work on Monday? Probably not, but my depth of knowledge has been expanded and I can only hope this will help as I move along. Now to just catch up on some sleep. :)