Yesterday was the first annual Heartland IIBA Conference – and it was a HUGE success. I am so happy with how everything turned out. It was a long day, got there at 6:45am and got home at 5:30pm, but so worth it. I am the President of this organization but can not take the credit for the event. We had a separate committee plan it and they did such a good job. It really sets the bar high for next year’s conference!

We had 5 speakers – which I helped to acquire so I will take some credit here 🙂 – and they were all phenomenal. We got so many comments on how great the presentations were. There was a lot of interaction from the audience too which shows how much they were getting in to it. All of the speakers commented that this was one of the best planned and executed conferences they’ve been to! This is saying a lot as most of them do this for a living and have been across the country speaking at these types of events.

There were over 100 attendees and the feedback was very positive. The facilities and food were great. The participation was awesome. The give-aways were a big hit. All in all, it went off without a hitch and was just perfect! Couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Being the Prez, I was the go-to person when there was something to be done that didn’t fit in a particular category. I was the emcee most of the day, directed people and traffic, acted as the “heavy” when speakers started to run over time, worked out some things with the vendors, took pictures, answered questions and more. I felt like a bride at a wedding getting pulled in several directions all at once! LOL I love being active and involved though.

The only down side to the day? I woke up with a cold. I was achy and a bit stuffed up when my alarm went off. Bollocks! But, I’m the president and I had to be there. So I took some Dayquil, a few Ibuprofen, grabbed an OJ and off I went. With all the adrenaline of the day, I felt pretty good for the most part. It wasn’t until late afternoon when things started winding down that it started to hit me again. By the time I got home I was really tired and just wanted to curl up in bed. BUT, instead, I had to play volleyball!

Playing volleyball while sick can go one of 2 ways – I can either play really crappy or I can play amazingly well because I’m extra focused. Last night, it went the way of the latter – I played awesome! Our team had so much fun and won 5 of our 6 games.

Now I’m so glad it’s Friday. Have a relatively low-key day at work and then CJ and I have a date night! We were supposed to go to a Halloween Party but with the craziness of the last few weeks, have had no time to get costumes ready so instead, we’re going to take advantage of having a sitter booked and go out! Munchkin is staying with my parents all night so we can hopefully get some much-needed sleep.

Have a great weekend!!

P.S. I was on the radio yesterday morning! Sort of…One of the stations here has a segment called “Top News” where they read the Facebook statuses that appear in their Top News feed. Apparently mine was yesterday! My status was regarding the conference and having a cold. I didn’t actually hear it but several of my friends did, which is totally cool!