Leadership Conference

Today I attended a leadership conference. I have to go to so many workshops for one of my classes and going to this conference counts for half of that requirement. If it hadn't been for that class I would not have gone; I would have missed some very interesting speakers.

The session was divided in a few parts; first we had breakfast and socialised with one another. A politician then came and talked to us. His message was that we could make a difference. Mostly he told us stories of people who had gone against the odds (including himself) to achieve something great, even if only small. After being properly applauded out, we split into a number of sessions, according to our fancy.
I attended two such sessions:
1) The first was on MindBody Intelligence; a practical psychology approach preaching "know thyself". The man talking founded the approach and the clinic he runs. His purpose was to get us to write, in our own time, a mission statement, a set of guidelines that both provide an ethical and directional backbone. Having given this approximate presentation hundreds of time, his delivery was impressive. He had a good flow, and was very efficient.
http://www.mindbodyintelligence.com/

2) The second was on bad leadership and why people follow it. This presentation was given by one less qualified and less interesting than the previous speaker. She basically went over a book written by someone with the credentials. She asked us a lot of questions and while waiting for our answer, encouraged us with some impressive facial gymnastics. Still the matter was substantial, and gave some food for thought

Real food followed. Lunch was served, and on most tables sat an alumni from a different field. I sat with a civil engineer who was now going to business school to move away from engineering. We, the people at our table, asked him questions and he graced us without much prompting with long monologues on his life choices.
Lunch finished, we stayed in the same seat and heard a motivational speaker tell us about her model to success. What a speaker she was! Her energy was remarkable; her flow was smooth; and her voice was perfectly schooled to draw her audience where she wanted it to be. Her model is certainly not unique; in fact I had conceived of most of what she said, but hearing someone else say it in such a convenient package is a very different experience.
http://www.janntaber.com/

And that was the end of the conference. It seems like there is a lot of knowledge available to one that looks for it. And yet I never go to any such event in Australia... I tend to take them as a bit of a joke, but in fact the good ones are worth the time.