The Whiteboard Sessions has come and gone. It was a really fun day including tons of conversations with friends, some new connections, interviews live on Conference Channel, and a total letdown movie to end the day (more on that later). So here are some highlights: - had dinner last night with Boyd Bettis, Matt Morgan, Scott Magdelain, LV Hanson (from our team), Terrace Crawford, Ben Arment, Jay Hardwick and his wife Lara Beth (who is a total trooper), and Sam. We had some good laughs. It was like a bloggers convention- not sure how I got the invite.
- got to finally meet Tim Stevens from Granger Church. He was here with several of his team, including Kem Meyer, who is just plain cool. All of their team is cool. I bet Granger is a great place to work.
- Saw Perry Noble, Tony Morgan, and Ron Sylvia in the Atlanta airport on the way up to DC yesterday afternoon. Then got to hang with Perry some today. He is one of the funniest guys I know. We spent the better part of 10 minutes reminiscing about the good old days of professional wrestling. He informed me that Rock n Roll Express and the Midnight Express are wrestling each other in Liberty, SC sometime in the next several days. That is unbelievable! Those guys have to be at least 60 years old at minimum. I believe the match will be at the local high school gym. We are looking into front row seats! And by the way, Perry brought the wood during his session. Major props to him for challenging the audience here at Whiteboard. For a snippet of his talk, go to You Tube.
- Interviewed a bunch of friends for Conference channel including Ron Sylvia, Darrin Patrick, Carlos Whittaker, Tony Morgan and a few other attendees. Carlos and I look like long lost brothers with our shaved heads. And he previews something pretty cool in the video interview that will be happening with his blog community coming up in the next month. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIJzDundH5I&hl=en]
- Actually called in live to the Catalyst Podcast 50th episode recording and had Mark Batterson and Ed Stetzer join us for a few comments. I actually interrupted them while they were doing a live webcast interview (which has since been deleted from the conference channel page...). Steve Fee and Chrystina Fincher were live in the Catalyst studio with Ken Coleman, while I was on location here in DC at Whiteboard. Just call me Geraldo.
- Great to see all the other speakers who were here to present- John Burke, Mark Dever (who I didn't get to meet but was hoping to), and Vince Antonucci, who is hilarious.
- Other folks who I got to catch up with- Joshua Symonette, Scott Hodge, Jeff Shinabarger, Brad Abare, Chris Elrod, Will Mancini, and the infamous Todd Rhoades, who was twittering like a mad man all day long from the Leadership Network VIP Room.
- New friends got to connect with- Stephen Brewster from Integrity (had lunch with him, Shinabarger, Joshua and Ben Arment); had dinner with the guys from Igniter Media Group and Collide Magazine. It was great to meet their team- Rob Thomas (who is the President of Igniter), Kent McKeigg, Barton Damer, and Scott McClellan. These guys are doing some great work and are just cool cats in general.
- Went to see the latest Indiana Jones movie with LV and the Igniter Media Group guys. Pitiful movie. Horrible. Are you kidding me? Now my great memories of Indiana Jones growing up have been tarnished. Boo!
- Wissssshhhhhheeeeewwww! That was something.