NSA Winter Meeting 2016 Day 1

Winter in Austin

The National Speakers Association (NSA) Winter meeting got underway on Friday February 26, 2016 in Austin, Texas. The meeting is being held at the Hilton Hotel Complex in downtown.

Austin is a very impressive city. Of course the people here are extremely friendly and helpful. The downtown area is just alive with activity. There are stores and shops and office buildings almost as far as the eye can see.

Everywhere I go there are people jogging or walking their dogs or just plain walking. The temperature has been in the high 60’s during the day and it is not too chilly in the evening to walk from the Hilton to my hotel (Embassy Suites). It is about a mile away. I am staying there because I waited so long to register for the meeting that the rooms at the Hilton were sold out.

Friday started with a program by Candace Fitzpatrick, CSP called The Authority of One: Building Confidence from Your Core. Since building confidence is what I do for my audiences when I speak I thought this would be a good session to attend, and it was.

Candace speaks about tapping into your core talents to help you succeed. It sounds pretty rudimentary but obviously a lot of people do not do it. That is why she has a successful career as a speaker.

There was a delightful lady sitting at my table for this presentation and we decided to go to lunch together and talk business. She had spent the majority of her life as a legal nurse consultant. She now is a speaker and a coach. We had lunch at a place called Blenders & Bowls. It is hard to describe but they have basically figured out a way to make a bunch of different edible servings of what seem to be yogurt with fruits, berries, nuts and granola added. It was absolutely delicious.

When we returned from lunch it was time for the general membership session. This is the official kickoff of the event and NSA brought out the big guns both to speak and to get us excited about what was to come.

When evening came it was time for an event called “Dine Around.” I have never been to a convention that did this before but it is a great idea. I will tell you more about it in a later post because, well, because I am running out of time here and have to get to another meeting.

This has been really worthwhile. In the meantime do your best to live beyond fear.