NBTA draws to a close

For the last two years, I have had the honor of serving as the elected Vice President of the National Business Travel Association. NBTA is the leading business travel management association in the world, charged with education and advocacy on behalf of its members. I joined NBTA ten years ago and quickly found a home there. It has been such a rewarding association to be a part of. I've made amazing friendships, developed professionally, and hopefully, have been able to give a little bit back.

This last week was our annual international conference and exposition. More than 5,600 business travel professionals from around the world showed up for it. I was delighted to be a part of this event. I approached it with a touch of melancholy as well as this would be my last conference in a leadership role for awhile. I won't go into a lot of detail here about the conference as you can go to the website and read all about it.

I did want to highlight the speakers we had. On Sunday, we heard from Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger - he of USAirways 1549 fame; Dara Torres, the Olympian swimmer; Jay Leno; and former President Bill Clinton. Pretty good docket, huh?

"Sully" could not have been more awesome. Seriously. There were more than 3,500 rowdy folks in the hall when he spoke and you could have heard a pin drop as he spoke. The room was mesmerized. It's not like he spent a ton of time retelling the story of his flight's swim in the Hudson. Rather, he focused on a lifetime of preparation that readied him for the events of that day. It was fascinating. He's humble and human. His wife, Laurie, was there and I was able to escort her around a bit. She's absolutely lovely. It was good to talk to him. I'm certain he was the right man for the job that day.

On Monday, our featured speaker was Olympian, Dara Torres. She was my luncheon companion and was really cool. She is in amazing shape. Seriously. She's big into Twitter. You can follow her there - @daratorresswims. Her story was pretty interesting, especially how she wound up swimming at her 5th Olympics in Beijing in 2008.

On Tuesday, Jay Leno came down and literally put on a "gig." It was like being in a comedy club, except you were surrounded by 3,500 people and a bad chicken lunch. He was really very funny. I couldn't help but notice that Jay seemed a lot more at ease when he was unshackled from the chains of network television. He was with us for more than an hour and had everyone laughing. It was a pleasure meeting him, too. I'm still firmly entrenched in the Letterman/Conan camp, but I have to admit I was impressed with Jay.

Our final speaker on Wednesday was the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton. I was pretty ambivalent about this one. My feelings about him are mixed at best. I mean he did manage to balance the budget, but so many things on the international front, like letting the change to eliminate Osama bin Laden, were missed, and then there's the whole cheating/lying thing, which really was the proverbial nail in the coffin. That being said, his speech was fascinating. He even mentioned his trip to North Korea, calling it a "business trip," which surprised me as I figured Shrillary had muzzled him on that one. At the conclusion of his speech, I had the chance to meet him. It's been said that he is an incredibly charismatic and engaging person, and yep, it's true.

Anyway, I'll be posting some pictures later when I get them from all of this. It really was a great conference and a great way to say good-bye. When I stood on the stage and said my goodbyes, I have to admit I was awash in a slew of emotions. I'm going to miss so much of the things I did in a leadership role, but I know that right now, it's time for me to take a break. It's been a great ride.