After all of the loyalty that this over-achieving niche hotel brand has shown my old company, HSA for so may years, and after the 5 or more sales trips I’ve made to its corporate offices, I only wished it would have worked out for me to be there in prior years vs. sending my other HSA staff trainers, especially after I saw how professionally their event was organized.  I have to say I’ve never seen a better slate of speakers for a conference of this magnitiude, as they scheduled some of the names I respect most in my field such as Peter Yesawich, Ph.D., T. Scott Gross, and Cindy Estes Green, who I am pictured with below.

For me it was also very cool going for the first time ever to Duluth, MN.  While many people might consider this just another little Great Lakes industrial town on the verge of re-inventing itself as a tourism and meeting destination, I might have been the only attendee to recognize instantly that I was about to personally visit the birthplace of one of my country’s greatest folk singers – Bob Dylan.  Looking out my window of the Holiday Inn Select at this quaint and historic small town, it looked little changed in decades. Here was my view when I woke up: 

                                

I could easily imagine a young and dreaming Robert Zimmerman walking the streets, visiting the pizza place, or sitting anywhere on any downtown street simply taking in the view of Lake Ontario.  Thanks to Jim Bridger for planning all this and including me.