Greetings 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.
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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.
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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!
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!!! 🙂
So what are the chances that cabin would be available on a continual basis? 🙂
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!
You’ll just have to be there next year, huh?
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.
It was a great time. Definitely worth the time and effort to go if you can next year!
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
Great to meet you Kurt! Check out gravatar.com and see if that can’t help fix your grey silhouette =)
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!!
Next year for sure. Hope to see you there Adam!
No, I’m pretty sure it’s the mustaches.
You have a point 🙂
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 😉
Looking forward to it Therese! Great to meet you. Talk to you soon.
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. 🙂
Jack- how did we miss each other? Next year we will have to plan on jumping off high things together. Sound like a plan?
Excellent idea!
Done
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!
Tahoe was beautiful. Absolutely amazing.
definitely need to make it next year. love reading all these posts about it!
You definitely should. You’re a native portlander after all, correct?