Ft. Worth, Texas

Dear Friends,

It's 2011 and my very first trip of the year was to....(drum roll)....Fort Worth, Texas!  Not exactly exotic, but it was a really fun trip.  The purpose was to attend an Executive Forum for my company.  Once a year, they bring all of the company VPs and directors to one location, and spend the week going through company strategy, financial planning and team-building.  It may sound generic and vague, but I can tell you that it was an incredible week.  The meetings started around 7:30am, and in some cases, went until 9pm.  The content of the meetings was really good - I felt like it was well worth the time, effort and expense to assemble 500 people from around the globe.

We stayed at the Omni Hotel in Ft. Worth.  In just a few weeks, one of the two Superbowl teams will be at this hotel:

It's located in downtown Ft. Worth.  Right next to the hotel was a park that contained the Ft. Worth Water Gardens.  This was a beautiful collection of fountains, waterways and sculpture:

At night, the downtown area of Ft. Worth is lovely - they still have lights from Christmas (I assume), which lights up several streets in the evening:

My cel phone camera just couldn't take this picture...

After the first day of meetings (where we found out that the Board of Directors had let our CEO go!), they wanted all of the folks from around the world, to experience a little Texas culture.  To accomplish that - they sent everyone to a place called Billy Bob's.  I think that the name should tip you off.  It's been described as a "the world's largest honky tonk".  Others have called it "redneck central" ; )  It was a fun experience.  I was disappointed that the mechanical bull broke down.  But not really...

I felt sorry for the poor guy having to work under there...

They had two large dance floors, where they were teaching country line-dancing and the Texas two step:

An interesting note is that the Rodeo was coming to town this weekend.  They actually had some professional bull riders doing demonstrations in a giant ring, attached to Billy Bob's:

I won't bore you with a description of the rest of the meetings.  However, I did want to mention one session.  Each year at this conference, like other large corporate gatherings, they arrange for an inspirational/motivational speaker.  While the quality of these speakers vary, the experience this year was simply...amazing.  The speaker's name was Benjamin Zander.  He's the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a professor of music for 45 years:

The central theme for his talk was about the "art of possibility" - living your life in a way that your open to experiences, opportunities, etc.  He helped everyone understand this from perspectives as a leader, artist or student.  He taught an appreciation for classical music, and actually had a cello student reach new heights in his performance, with Zander coaching him in realtime.

I'm not doing him justice at all...you'll have to read his book, or watch some video clips online, to understand.  I will tell you this - by the end of the experience, he had a room of 500 corporate leaders singing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"...in German.  It was an enlightening, entertaining experience that I won't forget.  I'm sorry that I can't describe it better...

I'm glad that the week is over - I'm anxious to return to my family and newborn daughter.  We'll see what trips I'll end up taking in 2011.  Thanks for joining me for the ride ; )