Now that I am back at home and working on all the little things that come with getting life back to normal after a conference (buying real food, changing the oil in my neglected car, dealing with apartment complex issues, and exercising for the first time in weeks), I am working on mentally processing the entire event.  When I was trying to come up with 7QT ideas for the week, my brain was still primarily running in Student Leadership Summit mode. So here we go with a 7QT on all things SLS14.

1—Power Sessions

The Summit was a new conference design for us, based on the concept that our student leaders should be able to teach others about what they have learned by the time they leave.  This meant that essentially, the success of the conference was almost entirely based on the college students taking responsibility for the material they were learning in sessions and teaching it to their peers in their small groups. 

For said small groups, we have everyone gather in one massive exhibition hall in the afternoons.  There were countdown clocks running for exercises to keep them on track.  We worked hard on the design of these “Power Sessions,” but there was still the chance that everything could break down into complete chaos.

Perhaps one of my favorite moments of the entire conference was during the first of the Power Sessions, where we watched the students teach each other, pray with each other, and collaborate, all in a very peaceful way.  It was beautiful, and the first thought through my head was, “It’s actually working!” Way to go, Student Leaders. 

2—Adoration Night

Always one of the most beautiful and powerful nights at any of our conference for the attendees, this night was actually a very powerful one for me.  You see, this conference came together against some odds, with a few battles, and a lot of hard work.  But taking a moment to pause in prayer with 2,000 others, while many lined up for hours for the Sacrament of reconciliation, I saw how beautifully God was working in these students’ lives.  I was so moved, and do you know what? I would do it all over again to give the students that gift. 

3—Miracle Flights

SLS took place January 3-7 in Dallas, TX.  As you may recall, while we were wearing our light jackets deep in the heart of Texas, the rest of the country was experiencing winter at its finest (worst?).  The Midwest was frozen solid with below 0-degree temperatures, and the Northeast was in a blizzard.

It just so happened that two of our speakers are with the Sisters of Life in New York.  I prayed fervently that they would be able to make it, or else… an open keynote slot?! The night prior to conference, they called and let me know that theirs was the only flight not canceled so far, and they were doing everything possible to try and make it.  I went to bed so nervous that night, as I was sure they would have a canceled itinerary.  But I woke up the next morning to a voicemail saying they were on the plane, and I nearly cried from joy!  They were the first (and possibly only) to leave Newark that day.  The Sisters of Life prayed their way to SLS!

One of my sub-committee heads for speakers was stranded in Chicago with a canceled flight as well.  Dana heard someone yell out, “Anyone want to go to Houston?” She impulsively hopped on a Houston flight and grabbed a rental car to get to Dallas on time. 

4—Panel Discussion

Another something new for us this year was a “TED Talk” style closing keynotes.  We heard from Helen Alvare, Patrick Lencioni, and Joe Hensler, three individuals who live out the faith in tremendous leadership roles in our society.

After all three talks, our President, Curtis Martin, joined them on stage for a panel discussion.  That was a whole lot of inspiration in one room!

5—Entertainment          

I always love working with bands.  Coordinating shows is one of the favorite parts of my job description, but not for the reason you might think. There are so many moving pieces to coordinate both ahead of time and the day of a show.  It’s like a puzzle that you work to fit all of the pieces together so the day runs smoothly.  Having done shows for both L’Angelus and Matt Maher before, this time was vastly more fun! I was better able to anticipate needs and create a better schedule for the day, and of course, they are all fun people with which to work.  It’s great to meet the people I have been emailing for months and see those who I have worked with previously and catch up. Shout and special thanks to missionaries Jonathan Sanchez-Hidalgo, Zach Tucker, and David Hickson for their selfless gift of time the whole day doing work with the best servant leadership attitudes ever!

We also worked with a talented team from the Dallas Comedy House who put together a special improv/sketch show for us with some FOCUS-specific humor and special guest appearances by some of our top speakers.

6—Team Life

In general, the events team has a lot of fun together, but there is nothing like being on-site and enjoying (yes, that’s right!) the event that we have put so much of our efforts and time into creating. Because the event ran so smoothly, it gave us extra time to talk, eat together without having to run off, have drinks together, and observe the event as it unfolded. We were also able to get some quality time with our “extended members,” the missionaries who work on-campus but help us run events on-site.  What would we do without them!  Overall, it was a great conference experience and time well spent as a team. 

7-Join us next year!

While not SLS-related, I just had to include a sneak peek video for next year's national conference, SEEK 2015.  Have a look!

1
Well, as of yesterday, I am officially one year older. It was a “Thai, pie” birthday!  I came to work to all of these decorations. And then my team and I all went out for Thai food for lunch—pineapple fried rice- Yum!  Speaking of yum, Christina made a delicious apple pie!  Then I went home to more Thai food, peanut curry made by my roommates, and cherry pie.  I was a full, happy, 23 year old.  And perhaps the best part of the day was Skype with Javi, a call with Mom, and a call with Scott.  Just lovely. 

2
After seeing those pictures, you may be thinking, “that office knows how to party!”  Indeed we do.  The events team knocked boss’s day out of the park this month.  However, we missed Wombat Day last week, as we were just unprepared. Well, there is always next year.  And just so you are not caught off guard, Wombat day is October 22.

3
In two days I am off to the Rejuvenate Marketplace Meeting Planners’ Conference in Daytona Beach.  It will be 4 days of non-stop conversations with vendors and venues, and hopefully a collection of a lot of great ideas from the event planning industry.  Be prepared for an upcoming post about reverse trade shows and Soledad O’Brien. 

4
Last Saturday we had a “Fall day” excursion to a pumpkin patch in Boulder followed by butternut squash macaroni and cheese for our fall dinner party. It was a great day of fellowship and everything autumn. 

Joining me in the picture is Michelle Lippoli, the guest contributor from my last post. 

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Check out this video! It’s the trailer for the reality show on EWTN that followed students at our last SEEK national conference. 

6
This is fun. See what state best fits your personality. You know it just sparked your interest.  I turned out to be Montana.  I could see it fitting as far as my desire for calmness and my introverted nature.  But am I considering a move to Montana?  No, thank you.

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It is Friday in the office, our bosses are gone, and we are getting antsy.  Our solution? Shoot a team video, of course.  I will consider sharing the completed version later.

 

—1

My entire events team just got back from our on-site planning trip to Dallas for our January conference. I would love to go into the beauty of the Hyatt Regency, and how much I love meeting and working with different CSMs (conference services managers).  Our CSM, Rizwan, has been helpful, and he tells us the funniest (and interesting) things.  I would love to elaborate more on his ideas to take over Wolfgang Puck Five Sixty atop the Reunion Tower with my co-worker Sean—naming their masterpiece of cuisine “Sean, Rizwan, and Puck”—sorry, Mr. Wolfgang, they have you outnumbered. I would love to elaborate on just how much steak my team can eat, how we found the floating JFK memorial, and just how much we make each other laugh.

But I will leave it at the basics. We came. We saw. We planned. Now I would like to get some sleep.

—2

Okay, so maybe you would like some more detail, and I would love to give it, but it is truly so hard to sum up how lucky I am to be doing an event planning job I love, and working with people who are just so great.  So here are just a couple snap shots from the trip. I’ll put it this way, we work hard, but we have a lot of fun, too.

—3

While in Dallas, I also was able to spend some time visiting my cousin, Clark, and his girlfriend, Meghan. They made me some amazing pork chili—I didn't leave with the recipe, but I haven’t given up on it yet.  I rarely get to see my cousins, so any chances we have to sneak in a visit are a must.

—4

I am very sad to see our fellowship of the Catholicism Series end next week.  Tuesday nights, our lovely friend, Kate, was willing to host us for dinner, wine, time with some wonderful women, and a video from the series. It was one of the most recreational activities I have taken part in for quite some time. It is just so rejuvenating to learn about your faith, eat great food, and laugh with friends—fellowship and warm hospitality at its finest.

—5

Thankfully, I have another study starting up to take its place. I will be gathering with a couple of other friends to read St. Teresa of Avila’s The Interior Castle. I’m sure this book will really shake things up.

—6

When I woke up this morning, it looked like this outside. So much for fall…

 —7

Has anyone ever talked about the fact that sometimes finding 7 whole things to write about is really hard?  I have officially decided to make 7QT and every-other-week project.  I really enjoy writing, and I am finding this to be a good outlet, but it is hard to keep up with sometimes. So instead of sitting down at the keyboard to quickly bang out a Quick Takes, I would like to give it more time so that the whole experience can be more of a leisurely experience. 

But I do have an exciting post coming up next week! Stay tuned for something theological, feminist, witty, and empowering from myself and guest contributor, Michelle. 

For years I have tried to reconcile being a detail-oriented planner with being a good follower of Christ. There is so much talk about how we need to surrender things and, for lack of a better phrase, “let go and let God.” So I would tend to consider my nature extra sinful, as I am prone to making decisions and thinking through the logistics.

I'll be the first to admit, I have my controlling moments, and yes, like most people, I do need to work on more trustfully surrendering my life to the will of God, regardless of the situation (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence will shake up anyone’s world- give it a read sometime). But aside from that, for a while, there was still the anxiety that I was doing something wrong. I’m not even really sure what made this anxiety go away. Probably much is due to prayer, and the fact that event coordinators plan, plan, plan, but we have to be incredibly flexible because last minute changes are just a part of the job, and of life.

We all have our particular abilities and strengths, and we should exercise and even improve them.  Details are just one of mine. In Mass a few days ago the priest said something that struck me in his homily. He was talking about married life versus religious.  He commented that married people really have to live in the realities of this world. There is just no way around it.  There are so many details that cannot be ignored in order to maintain a life, home, and take care of others. Religious have the opportunity to live a little more ascetic of a lifestyle. So thankfully, my natural strengths should help me better ease into my vocation. This did give me a bit of a paradigm shift.  Maybe I don’t have to focus less on keeping life in order, but rather I can make these details, as part of my vocation, part of what allows me to grow in holiness.

It reminds me of the time I was venting to a priest about how I felt I just couldn’t make enough time to pray as much as I felt I should—to which he replied, “Well you don’t live in a monastery!” He reminded me that having a job, relationships, and daily tasks is part of life, and we have to embrace all of it- so long as we are including prayer as a part of our lives. 

We can’t ignore the world and the details. We live in the world even though we are not of the world. And to function, society needs the free spirits, the innovative thinkers, and those with an eye for logistics. So use whatever your gifts are for the betterment of your vocation, your life, and your world. 

After about a year of contemplating keeping a blog to record my time living and working in Colorado as a FOCUS event planner—with what will inevitably be some of the largest events I ever plan in my life—I am finally getting around to it.  Here is what you can expect: I highly doubt I will be intentionally entertaining. But I will be honest.  For me, this is way to share life and musings with others. My closest friends are in grad school or doing missionary work all over the country (or world, actually), and quite a few keep a blog. It’s a much more comprehensive way to feel connected than the snippets of Facebook or Twitter.  And as much as I love having phone conversations, time zones really do work against us. I've been inspired by a number of blogs recently, so I’m giving it a shot. I have a few different pieces in the works to launch my first week.

Also, as I have taken on free-lance wedding client, this is a nice way to “speak” with clients as I look to expand in the future. So, blogosphere, I’m here! Let’s get started!