Over already?

Now I don't know if I was just excited that I was going to hear the two speakers that I was most interested in or because I was still star struck from last night, but when I woke up this morning I was full of energy. The day started with George Labovitz speaking about the power of alignment and getting everyone on the same page to benefit the entire company. George shared some terrific metaphors, company success stories and some pretty darn funny jokes. When we broke up into small groups for discussion my group began brainstorming ideas for what George called "the main thing" for the produce industry, which is equivalent to a simplified company mission statement. Let me point out that at my table sat a diverse crowd of small and large suppliers, retailers, and packaging people - so you could imagine the wide range of ideas and buzz words that started flowing when trying to figure out what "the main thing" is for the industry. I'm not even going to try to summarize what we talked about since we all came from different industry segments, but at first there were blank stares, next came the nodding of heads in agreement, and then the "Oh I like that" statements, which meant we finally decided on something ... twenty-five minutes later.

Another diverse factor about this symposium is the age range in attendance. A few people here could have sat me on their knee and told me a story about how they watched Neil Armstrong land on the moon while they were in high school. Others warned me that they own a shotgun and are pretty fast on foot if I ever meet their daughters. The remaining majority just kept talking about a day when MTV used play only music videos ... I called these people liars. You couldn't get an age range like this with so many stories and experiences to share in two days even if you drove around in a De Lorean with Marty McFly going 88 miles per hour.

A few weeks ago when I spoke to Chris Ciruli, chief operating officer of Ciruli Brothers and my mentor from the Pack Family/PMA Career Pathways Scholarship program two years ago, he told me to go out here and talk to as many different people as possible. For those of you who know Chris he said it a tad differently incorporated within a joke and I don't want to be typing all night ... so let's just say I took his advice and had lunch today with Alicia Calhoun, director of industry technology and standards for PMA and Claudia Wenzing, vice president of development for the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH). While having lunch I explained to Claudia that I wanted to get involved with the PBH Foundation and asked if she could point me in the right direction. From there the conversation flowed like fresh squeezed orange juice as Claudia shared some of the opportunities and the history of PBH while Alicia shared how her children are crazy about fruits and vegetables. This was by far one of the most beneficial experiences I have had since I've been here and at one point I looked down at my plate only to see four servings of fruits and vegetables ... but luckily the afternoon session was about to begin so I avoided having to explain myself to Claudia.

Wrapping up the symposium with Larry Johnson speaking about absolute honestly in business was a great way to bring everyone together in the end. Larry's presentation provided great tips for initiating conversations and was filled with a lot of group interaction to get the blood flowing for the closing reception. As the symposium came to a close we all said goodbye to our old and new friends promising to stay in touch as we exchanged business cards or as I like to call them, rock star memorabilia.