112 hours and 15 minutes until we roll in the front door of Prairie Meadows to be exact. And yes, I did go back and change that number before hitting Publish. No matter how much you prepare, in order to be prepared for a conference of this size, the week leading up to the event is going to be….a nightmare. Some may say that word is too harsh, others in our office might say that doesn’t do it justice, but all in all, pulling off a conference the size and complexity of the Annual Winter Conference is no easy feat. Thank goodness for an amazing team of individuals that put everything aside in order to work together to make sure that all 1,287 attendees have the best experience possible next week. Yes, I also updated that number last minute as well – increased by 20 in the 3 short hours it took me to write 4 paragraphs – but in my defense, I put out 2 fires in that time.
Registration numbers came in hot and heavy early for this year’s conference and we are at a new record for the number of people registered in ADVANCE of the conference. I am feeling fairly confident that we will pass last year’s numbers next week after we enter everyone that registers at the door. But higher registration numbers mean more of everything. More handouts, more registration packets, more food, more this, more that. Our office basically looks like a storage unit right now.
Our team has been working long hours to keep up with the registration numbers and to make sure that everything can run as smoothly as possible for all attendees, exhibitors and speakers while at the conference. Even with the stresses of the week before the conference, I was able to easily find smiling faces throughout the office while snapping some ‘conference prep’ photos.
All joking aside – we are all looking forward to an amazing event next week and we think everyone that attends is in for a great networking event full of powerful presentations and thought provoking sessions. There are a few events and sessions sold out, but plenty of options remain that will prove to be a well-worth investment of your time and money. We will be wrapping up advance registrations on Friday, but will be able to take all new registrations at the door when we are at Prairie Meadows.
We will be posting an update at the end of each day of the conference next week, so be on the lookout for those!
Now……to get back to stopping time so that we can get everything finished before Monday….
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