Conference

Most people don’t like conferences. Well at least they act like they don’t like them. I sometimes pretend I don’t like them either. But really, secretly, I kind of like them. I like them when I know I’m going to learn something and my interest is going to be captured.

I knew I was going to learn something yesterday at our international business conference. And I think that my dad was even more excited than me about the speakers {even though he wasn’t going…sorry!}. You see one of the speakers was the famous car designer Tom Tjaarda. He is such nice gentleman that lives in Torino, born and raised in Michigan. He had some fun stories to tell us and admitted that he never really knew quite what to say when he was asked to speak. He told us about his life and how he got to where he is at. He showed us pictures of the cars and other products he has designed.
One of the other speakers was a woman who did the same program some years ago. She stayed with one of the families in the area and that family’s daughter is my Italian teacher! My Italian teacher, Aida, is such a sweet woman and the two women are good friends still. Mona has set up her own international business of gourmet wine and foods. She originally was going to sell in Dubai (she is originally from Iran but immigrated to the US at a young age) and China, but now the US is her target market. Her products can be found in specialty stores and are now available for order online.

I love that hearing someone else’s life story can inspire someone to live their life a little bit differently and can lead to some inspiration. Maybe that’s why I love conferences…