Cheese Head
I’ve only got a few minutes here at the noon hour on Friday at the NIRSA show in Minneapolis before it’s back to more sessions this afternoon.
The day started out a little bumpy. When I arrived at the convention center this morning, I realized that my badge was packed away in the bag at the hotel. So I had to walk back, get the badge, walk back to the convention center and sit in on a halfway-completed session about technology. Hey, at least I got in my early morning workout.
(On my way back to the convention center, I saw a construction sign I had never seen before: Steel Plate Ahead. Then I saw another sign that read: Steel Plate In My Head, and it had a picture of me next to it. I thought that was kind of rude!)
I’ll try to get into more details about each of the sessions later. As for the technology session, it wasn’t bad. When I walked in, they were talking about how technology is imperative to the future of recreation centers on campus. They even had some examples of interactive games, and for a minute, I thought they were speaking directly to me, since I just did a story on interactive gaming for our April issue.
The session itself was interactive. Attendees could vote on questions posed on the big screen by a remote control, kind of like on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” The last question was “How would you rate this presentation?” The five choices ranged from “excellent” down to “better than sex.” The “excellent” entry got the most votes with 39 percent, but “better than sex” got a whopping 13 percent. Now I really wish I would have attended the first half of the session.
The best speaker so far was Kathy Cleveland Bull, who owns her own consulting company. Her presentation was “Get to the Cheese,” which sounded kind of cheese-y at first. But Bull was no bull. She loosened everybody up by engaging the entire audience into sort of a “meet and greet” demonstration, then talked about how we all go after the “cheese” — or what we really want in life — and have to figure out how to get it. The speech was partly based on a 1998 book by Spencer Johnson entitled “Who Moved My Cheese?” I’ll get into more detail about Bull’s presentation in another blog, but she’s someone who definitely needs to come speak at one of our Club Industry shows.
That’s about all the time I have for now. It might take a couple of days before I update the rest of this show here, so check back sometime early next week.
P.S. The lunch was pretty good, too. They had turkey sandwiches–with cheese. And yes, they were free. –Stuart
Related Topics: NIRSA Conference 2007, Behind the Scenes
