Well, I had planned to write a post about the Get Motivated Business Seminar I attended on the 9th of this month sooner, but I kinda misplaced the usb cord for the camera and it seemed too weird to write about it and then post a post of nothing but pictures later down the road. So here it is, belated of course, but all in one instead of chopped up.

Thankfully, there were no bag searches and the event staff were not enforcing the “no outside food or drink” rule of the Don Haskins Center because, oh my goodness, was that place packed. There were over 10,000 people in attendance that day. Concession stand lines and restroom lines were crazy. And then there were the prices of the concession stand foods. I was so glad I brought my own food! There were some good things about such a large crowd though; there was a chance for networking, I myself took a ton of resumes with me in the case that I might be able to pick up some jobs, and the energy was just incredible.

Since my ticket said “Executive Seating” I thought I’d be on the floor in front of the stage, turned out I was in the stands, but I did manage to get a seat near the stage and in the second row to boot. I was right there. I wished I had brought my tape recorder though as there were a lot of interesting topics discussed throughout the day and what slides that the speakers used tended to not stay up very long at all. Alas, I was a good girl and didn’t bring it. Mostly because I thought I was going to be front and center, and thus, more visible to the people on stage and the event staff.

I ended up carpooling with some small business owners from Las Cruces (never met them before) and my Mom attended as well. I kind of wished I had gone by myself instead of joining them though because they ended up wanting to leave early. There were two speakers left, and wouldn’t you know it, the two speakers I really wanted to see were the ones I had to miss; Rudy Giuliani and Mike Price. I did get to see Laura Bush though, as she spoke right after the lunch break, and Rick Belluzzo was the first speaker of the morning so it wasn’t a complete loss there. I saw two out of the four I really wanted to see speak.

I took a lot of photos, but most of them came out way too dark because of the lighting. It had the atmosphere of a concert, what with the lighting and pyrotechnics that occurred when guest speakers came out. The lighting stayed dim as well when the speakers were on stage which made note taking sometimes difficult. The best time for pictures was (usually) when the speakers were talking because the lights would brighten. Of course, since the slides would go so fast and the speakers themselves talked fast, I didn’t exactly want to stop in the middle of note taking to take pictures.

Leon Patillo, a former lead singer for Santana, performed a couple of times on stage. Rick Belluzzo, former of Microsoft, started the morning off and was followed by Ruben Gonzales, a four time Olympian, who was very funny. Dr. Robert Schuller, who I found to be very entertaining and full of wisdom, succeed him and was quickly followed by Krish Dhanam and Tamara Lowe. After we got back from lunch former first lady Laura Bush took the stage with a very heartening speech. After Mrs. Bush was Bob Catell, Zig Ziglar, and then John Smith.

Zig Ziglar was an utter disappointment in my book. I’d never heard of the guy before that day mind you, however, people sitting all around me couldn’t help but comment on how excited they were to hear him talk. Well guess what, he didn’t talk. Not much really. Apparently he suffered from a fall a little back and it affected his memory as well as walking. He did try to give a little speech but his daughter, who was supposed to be “assisting” him, seemed to hijack it and act as though here were senile and incompetent, in my opinion, which just irked the hell out of me. I hate it when I see people treat the elderly like that. In any case, after maybe five minutes of this they showed clips of Zig Ziglar’s speeches throughout his career.

To be frank, for all the fuss over hearing this guy speak live, after watching those clips, I didn’t see what the big deal was.

I have to say though, that was the most exciting and fun seminar I have ever been to before. I walked away feeling highly motivated, I took a lot of information that I could apply right away as well, and over all just really enjoyed the experience.

There were some downsides to the seminar though. I didn’t much appreciate the fact that some of the speakers seemed to think that religion and “god” were the answer to a lot of personal problems people might have. Even when they attempted to be non-offensive to those who might be atheist or agnostic they still came off condescending. Tamara Lowe and John Smith were perhaps the worst. I still recall Smith’s off-hand remark of how atheists and agnostics put their faith in “cat hair and crystals” while talking about the necessity of faith. In my opinion, at a motivational BUSINESS seminar, deragatory comments on people’s beliefs have no place there. You don’t have to be Christian, Muslim, Wiccan, or Jewish to have a business and succeed. So bringing in heavy connotations of religion doesn’t fit and since this is all about motivation, one shouldn’t be talking down to part of your audience either.

Other than that though, I really did enjoy the seminar.