I’m back from my conference in Washington DC and I have to say that I must be getting more cynical in my old age. First, as a whole, the conference was pretty good. The keynote speakers really had something to say and it was not a giant infomercial. One in particular was a drummer (Quinn Lever) that I recognized from a Group called Gentri. The band is best known for their Christmas videos. If you re interested, look on YouTube, the video is called “Drummer Boy.” Quinn is the drummer in the video. If this video doesn’t move you, well…
Basically, when he is not drumming, Quinn is known as the “Undercover Millennial.” He goes to different businesses under cover pretending that he is looking for a job. He gets the employees to open up and tell him what they really think of their employer and what they like vs dislike. He elicits information that a boss could never get and helps the company improve the morale of their employees. I guess it is like Undercover boss. I hope he doesn’t come to my office.
There was also a motivational speaker that works with pro football teams. He was funny. What I mean by that was every time he got to a catch phrase, he wanted the audience to repeat it. It gave me flash backs of the Geico commercial when Pinocchio was doing one of those motivational talks and he points to a guy and says, “You are not a loser”. Of course, his nose kept growing.
The last speaker was a chief economist, she was very interesting. The bottom line of her talk is they think the economy has taken a turn towards recovery and she was cautiously optimistic about the fourth quarter and the first quarter of next year.
Now for my take back. The financial advisors that I met were great to be around. I found them knowledgeable and did not spend hours talking about themselves. It was truly a pleasure meeting them. Finally, I did go to the various wholesaler booths. It was like trick or treating. My final count of booty was 52 pens, 2 sewing kits, 2 tension balls, 1 pizza cutter, 5 tubes of lip balm, 1 mini first aid kit, 1 Candy bar, 4 glasses cleaning rags and a few pads of paper with some company’s name all over it.
All in all, I would say it was a good trip.
Finally, for those of you that attended our wine tasting, the pictures are now posted on the website.