Yesterday was a great day of speakers and leadership training. Maximum Impact: Advance was held here in Atlanta at 12 Stone Church. It was a change for me- the last 4 years, I had directed the event, but was able to enjoy the event this year from a whole different perspective. Some of the highlights from the day: - spending more time with Kevin Carroll, who we had at Catalyst a couple of years ago and was a big hit with the Maximum Impact audience as well, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd. Kevin is doing some incredible things around the world through sports and play. Specifically, his involvement with the Homeless World Cup, which this year will be held in Australia in December, is pretty incredible.
- meeting Dick Vitale, the longtime hall of fame college basketball broadcaster with ESPN. He was an inspiration. I have long been a fan, and his work with the V Foundation makes him even more inspiring.
- Bill Taylor, the founding editor of Fast Company, and co-author of the book Mavericks at Work. Bill is a great guy and had some really great things to say- very practical content.
- John Maxwell was great, as always. He also interviewed Dan Cathy, the President of Chick-fil-A, and got to spend a few minutes with Dan backstage and of course, he had a plethora of Chick-fil-A sandwich cards to hand out to folks. I love being able to walk in to the local Chick-fil-A restaurant and hand the person at the register a card for a free chicken sandwich signed by Dan Cathy. It makes the conversation interesting. Dan did mention that the cookies and creme milkshake has 800 calories, and it takes me running 7.5 miles to burn up those calories. Yikes!
- Always great to see and catch up with Valorie Burton, who did the "coaching moments" at the event and interviewed a number of the speakers backstage after their talks. Valorie is a great author, speaker and communicator.
- Andy Stanley spoke on Making Vision Stick, and also did a short Q and A during a lunch with some of our Catalyst VIP's who we had invited to attend. It is always engaging to spend time with Andy. We talked about a few ideas for Catalyst this year, as well as the one day leadership training events we are doing over the next couple of years with him and Craig Groeschel.
- It was fun to meet Andy Andrews, who is a very popular speaker, writer and entertainer. He is hilarious.
- Spencer Tillman was the emcee of the event. I met Spencer three years ago for the first time, but I have known him for a long time, since he was an All-American running back at the University of Oklahoma and a hero of mine growing up, plus is the current college football analyst on CBS Sports during the football season. Spencer was at OU when I was in middle school, and I can remember watching games on TV and a few in person during Spencer's career at Oklahoma. Most notably, his touchdown run against Nebraska, as well as his incredible play against Penn State in 1985 National Championship game in the Orange Bowl. He has become a good friend.
- Patrick Lencioni, the best selling author of many leadership and management books, did a great job of speaking on the Three Signs of a Miserable Job. He also got a polaroid picture in the Catalyst Vanagon as the Roadtrip made a special stop at Maximum Impact for a few minutes to catch up with a few of the attendees and speakers.
- You can download starting Monday the executive summaries from the speaker sessions on the Maximum Impact website.