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You are here: Home / Adventures / The Best Reason To Attend A Conference

The Best Reason To Attend A Conference

June 9, 2011 By Joel Runyon 23 Comments

World Domination SummitGreetings From Lake Tahoe Nevada. After sneaking into Mt. Rushmore, we managed to drive through Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. After driving through the Colombia Gorge and spending a massively awesome weekend at the much tweeted about World Domination Summit in Portland, we’re not onto the second half of the Road Trip where we’ll be visiting Las Vegas, Tahoe, Cool Rock Formations and more. If you’re somewhere in between any of the stops, let us know.

***

In the last year I’ve been to a half-dozen conferences, including WDS. The more and more I go to conferences, the more I realize what the best part of every conference is:

It’s not the keynotes
it’s not the workshops
It’s not the coffeebreaks with the fruit kabobs
It’s not the cool city that it’s located in
And no, it’s not the handlebar moustaches of it’s residents.

The real reason to attend a conference is because of the people you’ll meet.

The cool part about 500 people descending on Portland this last week wasn’t the the fact that we can all run around town with name tags and matching t-shirts. The cool part is meeting 500 people who are all living amazing stories with their lives. Where else on earth do you get to meet:

The cost of living surveyor who flies around the world for a living. A guy walking all the way across America. A girl starting a sustainable clothing line with one of her best friends. A former lawyer who turned in her legal work for wanderlust. A-list bloggers determined to learn how to dance. Some guy set on riding every roller coaster in America. A massive nerd who speaks at Google in between flying around the world for less than $500. These stories are just a handful of the ones you get to hear about when you meet people face-to-face. And yes, every single one is even cooler in person than their blogs make them out to be.

So, next time you think about going to a conference, worry less about what the speaking sessions and focus more on the people you’ll meet in between them. They’re infinitely valuable.

***

Speaking of people, I jumped out a plane with over 40 of them on Friday and jumped off a perfectly good bridge on Monday with about 20 of them. Stories, recaps with photos and videos are all coming in the next few weeks as we work on gathering all the media and putting it together. Stay tuned!

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Filed Under: Adventures, Updates Tagged With: wds, wds 11, why to attend a confernce, world domination summit

About Joel Runyon

I started IMPOSSIBLE to push myself to try to live a life worth writing about by pushing my limits, living an adventure & telling a great story by doing the impossible. You can get free updates in your inbox via your new favorite newsletter, free fitness training tutorials, and see all my businesses at Impossible X and our philanthropic efforts at Impossible.org

Comments

  1. Marina Reede says

    June 9, 2011 at 4:36 pm

    sooo amazing! after following WDS through some of you and diving into the blogs of some of the awesome WDS people, it made me realize again who i am. well, okay, perhaps not so much right now but used to be…someone who’s truly alive. i forget that these days. happy for the reminders. happy to hear about your fabulous adventures! glad you loved glacier! i need to write about my stories there! (saw a bear and 2 cubs about 10-15 feet away, and more). i’ve been to tahoe too. one of my brothers has a cabin. 🙂 have fun! go hug a redwood for me!!! 🙂

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 11, 2011 at 7:06 pm

      So what are the chances that cabin would be available on a continual basis? 🙂

      Reply
  2. David | Almost Bohemian says

    June 9, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    Sad I wasn’t there, but glad to see all these great posts. When the ‘net is abuzz with inspiration, we all catch a bit of it!

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 11, 2011 at 7:05 pm

      You’ll just have to be there next year, huh?

      Reply
  3. Meg says

    June 9, 2011 at 7:46 pm

    Sounds like everyone really had a great time. I am sure you met some lifelong friends as well. Can’t wait to read more about the event.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 11, 2011 at 7:06 pm

      It was a great time. Definitely worth the time and effort to go if you can next year!

      Reply
  4. Kurt Swann says

    June 10, 2011 at 1:17 am

    Joel!

    The best part WAS NOT the fruit kabobs?? Not even a close second? Okay then . . .

    Nice to see you and have a fun trip home! Also, don’t know how to put my photo on this comment so I’m just a plain, grey silhouette 🙂

    Kurt

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 11, 2011 at 7:07 pm

      Great to meet you Kurt! Check out gravatar.com and see if that can’t help fix your grey silhouette =)

      Reply
  5. Adam Mayfield says

    June 12, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    I’m glad you had an awesome time! Super sad I wasn’t able to make it even though I was just on the other side of the mountains from you guys. Maybe next year!!

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 16, 2011 at 10:27 am

      Next year for sure. Hope to see you there Adam!

      Reply
  6. Tyler Tervooren says

    June 12, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    No, I’m pretty sure it’s the mustaches.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 16, 2011 at 10:27 am

      You have a point 🙂

      Reply
  7. Therese Schwenkler says

    June 13, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    Very, very true… this was (sadly) the first conference I’ve been to, but it definitely won’t be the last.

    Great to have met you, Joel… and I’m still going to send you my impossible list one of these days (promise 😉

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 16, 2011 at 10:27 am

      Looking forward to it Therese! Great to meet you. Talk to you soon.

      Reply
  8. Jack Bennett says

    June 13, 2011 at 6:04 pm

    The fruit kabobs were tasty, but I have to agree with you – at an event like this it’s all about the people. So sorry I missed meeting you and the various jumping off / out of things events – guess I’ll have to come back for 2012 and do things even better next year. 🙂

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 16, 2011 at 10:29 am

      Jack- how did we miss each other? Next year we will have to plan on jumping off high things together. Sound like a plan?

      Reply
      • Jack Bennett says

        June 16, 2011 at 11:03 am

        Excellent idea!

        Reply
        • Joel Runyon says

          June 16, 2011 at 11:45 am

          Done

          Reply
  9. Justin Hamlin says

    June 14, 2011 at 12:34 am

    Enjoy the area brother, Tahoe is beautiful and amazing year round. I have family about 80 miles southwest of there, so I have spent a fair amount of time in the area and still cannot get enough.

    Enjoy friend, safe travels!

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 16, 2011 at 10:29 am

      Tahoe was beautiful. Absolutely amazing.

      Reply
  10. Janet says

    June 15, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    definitely need to make it next year. love reading all these posts about it!

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      June 16, 2011 at 10:30 am

      You definitely should. You’re a native portlander after all, correct?

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. I Think I Started a Revolution by Accident (Or, Why I'm Finally Writing My Leadership Book) | DaveUrsillo.com says:
    June 13, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    […] Kamb, Jacob Sokol, my WDS-roommate Matt Langdon, Laura Roeder and Corbett Barr, Josh Millburn and Joel Runyon, Brandon Sutton and Nathin Agin, Shannon Whitehead and Jeanie Witcraft, and Ev’yan Nasman, […]

    Reply

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