Whew! I’m finally in Cincinnati. Well, actually, we’re in Covington, Kentucky. That’s something like East Hartford is to Hartford, but with the Ohio River in between. The river is a bit more accessible, both visually and access-wise, than the Connecticut is. There are restaurants on boats — and a haunted boat tour of the USS Nightmare. Bridges are a very prominent element of the Cincinnati skyline. It reminds me some of Pittsburgh in that respect.

My relief in arriving has nothing to do with the flights out here. All were pretty much on time, flawless and my luggage made it. However, the week leading up to the conference was especially hectic. I’m here in part to learn what all is involved in staging one of these conferences, since I’m chairing the 2008 event that will be held in Hartford. So, in addition to my real job responsibilities, I was dropping off and picking up “save the date” postcards, picking up lollipops to glue on to the postcards (did you know they were originated in Connecticut?) and prepping my promotional presentation. Not all that bad under normal circumstances, but this week the job required getting everything ready for two back-to-back trade shows. Oh, and college friends we haven’t seen in about 10 years are coming Tuesday, so the houses needed a bit more attention than normal. Figures.

This morning I sat in on the Regional Board Meeting and learned how many committees got late starts on their conference duties. I wouldn’t have guessed given the line-up they’ve pulled together. It does, however, give me confidence about next year’s event. We’ve already lined up our first keynoter, Robert Dilenschneider, former CEO of Hill & Knowlton, author and IABC fellow. I’ve also got some very well-connected folks lined up to work on other speaker arrangements.

This afternoon it was a leadership forum; some sessions focused on helping chapter leaders with recruiting, programming, etc. There were many useful presentations, and I’ve got a ton of notes, but what stood out for me was the panel of senior IABC leaders. These are folks who have been in the organization for many, many (many) years and have held high-level leadership roles. 

David Kistle, ABC, a former IABC Chairman and someone who worked for 3M and now works with a PR agency, said that his IABC experience has allowed him to hone his leadership skills as well as develop “a network that is incredible” and includes people in the US, Canada, South Africa and more.  Camille Downing, an independent, said that 80% of her clients are IABC connections and Barbara Puffer, ABC, an independent, says that every job and every promotion in her career could be linked to IABC — and it allowed her to retire from corporate life at 49. Mark Schumann, ABC, Towers Perrin, illustrated the value of the IABC network with a story about being in Tokyo needing to do a press check and discovering that no one at the printing plant spoke English.  He called a local IABC member, whom he did not know, and explained his predicament. Forty-five minutes later, she was at the plant with him explaining that the green was the wrong color.  He also told the story about how he ended up with his Towers Perrin job during a District conference.

Cool stuff.