Nothing like a little craziness....

I just got back from a meeting of Meeting Professionals International, a group of organizers and convention service people who met at a hotel that wasn't far away from my place. I was invited by a convention bureau (Atlanta) to visit and maybe learn a thing or two or three.

The seminar that was set up was about leadership and management and was hosted by the Disney Institute - yep, they do training too! The seminars concentrated on how to use the "Disney Way" to get the best results from group planning and management.

For the community, it's important to note that everyone or almost everyone is a volunteer, so leading and planning is different from doing the same in a business model - there's no pay, and to a certain extent, no incentive. The good thing about this though is that the incentive for a volunteer is deeper than a paycheck - volunteers don't answer to the standards that are set by a business, but by what is set by themselves...and that is often a higher standard than is set in a business.

So leading is finding those of same vision and creating an environment that encourages creativity - this empowers the individuals to do what they want and need to reach their objectives. It's also fun.

Now, I get o zip to DC and do another display - it's been pretty frantic!