The Weary Traveller

Wow! 2010 is barely out of the gate and I have been out of town 2 weeks out of the four already.

First stop was The Special Event in New Orleans. This was a professional development event for me and I had the opportunity to attend 9 educational sessions which included marketing, branding as well as some creative workshops focusing on design. I also met some wonderful people in New Orleans and wished that I could spend more time visiting with the locals. The food was tremendous and I tried a little bit of everything including alligator!

There were two standout workshops for me. The first was a press workshop by Tara Wilson owner of Tara Wilson Events. She was down to earth and willing to share all of her experiences with the audience. She is definitely going places that girl, and I look forward to seeing her on Martha Stewart one of these days. The other stand out workshop for me was the branding workshop with Kristy Chenell and and Frances Marron. They were great presenters and provided a great deal of good information. I was pleased to see that I was on the right track already with my branding, but in need of some additional information.

After returning home, it was a quick rest up and then off to Edmonton, Alberta to present at the Edmonton Tourism AGM.

The Edmonton Tourism AGM was held at the new Expo Centre and organizers tried very hard (and succeeded) in making this a green event. My hat is off to Ramona McVicker and her group! Thank you for hosting such a wonderful green event.

At the AGM I was fortunate enough to make contact with a gentleman from Powerful Play. We followed up with a phone call when I got home. Check out Robert's website at www.powerfulplayexperiences.ca to learn more about him. His workshops appear to be really innovative and creative and alot of fun!

I am now getting prepared for my next trip which is to Denver for the Green Meeting Industry Council Conference. I am sooooo excited! I come home from the GMIC conference truly inspired and motivated and ready to tackle the world!

Talk to you soon!

J

Getting to meet the coolest people!

I have the best job in the world! Do you know why? I get to meet the most tremendously interesting people when planning events. Right now I am working on the Northeastern BC Community Living Conference to be held in May which is going to be a wonderful event full of great workshops and information. One of the individuals speaking at the event is Norm Kunc of Broadreach  Training and Resources.  Norman and his partner Emma have spent the last 25 years working to ensure that people with disabilities are able to take their rightful place in schools, workplaces and communities. Norm was born with Cerebral Palsy but that has not slowed his pace or dampened his passion for life. After school he went on to complete a Bachelors degree in Humanities and a Master of Science degree in family therapy. It was great to speak with him on the phone while planning this event and I can't wait to meet him in October.

I also was fortunate enough to touch base with Amy Roloff  recently. Amy and her family come into our homes each week with a program called, "Little People, Big World". We were looking to see if she would be available to speak at our conference. Unfortunately, she wasn't available, but maybe another time. As I expected, she was very nice and every bit down to earth. I really enjoyed speaking with her and maybe having an opportunity to work with her in the future.

As I said, "I get to meet the coolest people"!

J

Watching the garden grow....

I feel a little like a child these days watching our garden grow. The potatoes are looking good, the peas are reaching for the sun and I think I overplanted the turnip a bit! I am currently looking on websites trying to come up with some recipes for turnip other than the traditional. Can you freeze it, can you "can" it? 

I also will have beans, beets, onions and slowly but surely I will have carrots (we planted them a little deep.

When the carrots weren't coming up and the turnips looked like they had been nibbled on by something I had a "Little House on the Prairie" flashback to the episode when their garden didn't produce. "What are we going to eat Pa?", cried Laura

We don't have that problem, having a garden for us is not a necessity because we can go to the grocery store and buy what we need. But what if it was a necessity? What if we needed our garden to produce so that we could survive the winter? 

J

Water, water everywhere...

We have water restrictions on in our community. They have been on since the 1st of May and they are fairly easy restrictions to follow. Even numbered houses water on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and odd numbered houses water on Thursdays and Sundays....same time...you get the drift. Now the wierd thing about unenforced water restrictions is just that....they are unenforced. The only pennance you receive for watering beyond the restricted hours is losing your neighbour's respect and you know, sometimes that is enough. Peer pressure is sometimes all it takes.  

Greetings and salutations

You know when you don't do something that you are supposed to do and the longer that you leave it undone, the harder it gets to do? Well, that is what it is like writing in a blog. Unless you commit to writing regularly, it gets forgotten. Well I am back and I will be blogging regularly (here I go, setting myself up for failure.....)

I have almost finished reading "Sleeping Naked is Green" by Vanessa Farquharson. She committed to 365 acts of green, wrote a blog about it and then turned it into a book. She doesn't set out to write a resource book, she isn't writing it as a how to, she is just telling it like it was for her and with that comes some laughs and insight on how difficult it can be. I am enjoying it.

I am reading two books at the same time though. One is "Sleeping Naked is Green" and the other is "Slow Death by Rubber Duck". So I laugh a little reading Sleeping Naked and then cry a little reading Slow Death. Slow Death is a much darker book and is about how the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our heath.....not a comedy that is for sure.

Now all I can think about now is the pacifier than my children had in their mouth for days, months, years!! Or the teething ring, or the rattle that they chewed on. Sorry kids....I honestly didn't know any better at the time.

The best part of reading books like these is that it makes you think and it makes you question and that is half the battle isn't it?

Until tomorrow.....

J