After flying cross-continent from laceType w:st="on">Ft.laceType> Lauderdale to LAX, then back-tracking on a commuter flight up to Reno, I was soon in my rental car and headed to Northstar Lake Tahoe, which was the resort hosting the conference.  Arriving in the afternoon I even had time to clean-up the e-mail in-box from my just-renovated luxury ski chalet before joining the group for its evening event.  Despite that my Kentucky Wildcat Football team was on ESPN Thursday Night in prime time for the first time in a decade, I enjoyed joining the group for its reception and dinner at a local pub/restaurant, especially since I convinced the bartender to switch channels and was able to check-in on the score.

About the time I was just thinking that I didn’t know as many people at this group as I used to, a man and his wife sat down across from me at dinner.  Within minutes I realized that it was Bruce Moss, who with his wife Lori now owns the Gateway Central Reservations from Telluride, CO, who I’d known since the start of my training career.  Bruce had been the Director of Lodging at Innisbrook Resort, when I cold-called them in 1990 and convinced my good friend Joel Meyer to convince his boss – this guy named Bruce Moss – to approve my proposal for training despite that I had only 2 or 3 references to date.  Bruce later used my training when he ran the Tamarron Resort, and even was generous enough to comp my stay during my 5^th anniversary vacation in 1991. 

It was so awesome reconnecting with Bruce again and meeting for the first time his wife Lori, who was extremely personable and fun.   I look forward to seeing them again one day soon enough when I take my family out to Southwest Colorado for a vacation.  Here’s a picture of me with Bruce and Lori Moss:

                                          

It was also great seeing my good buddy Bill Tomcich, who is the President of the StayAspenSnowmass area tourism group and who I’d first met when he was the president of CRADR years before.  Here’s a picture of me with Bill and his gang from SAS, along with one of the room:

           

But best of all it was really great reconnecting with Ralf Garrison, their association advisor, who has been such a huge supporter of mine not only professionally as a clienit but also as a personal mentor and friend.  Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a picture with Ralf this round. 

It was also great to visit the Tahoe area and experience its Alpine beauty again, especially to witness their first snowfall of the season, which I suppose was a good sign from The Universe to have happened on the very day of their conference!  Here’s a picture of the snow outside my balcony and also a link to a quick camera movie of the snow that fell outside the window of our meeting room the whole day of this industry-wide ski conference, which I have to think is a good omen being this early in October!