It's been quite a while since my last posting. Oddly enough, in that time I've probably done most interesting stuff since I got back to country. For starters, I finally did a bit of travelling. I went to Salt Lake City for the IAAM convention. The IAAM, International Association of Assembly Managers, is a convention that my parents always took us to growing up. My Dad has been actively involved for years and this year became the President of it. He will be the President of the IAAM until next year, it's a one-year term. I'm very proud of him and all that he's been able to accomplish and I'm excited to see what he'll be able to bring as President. This year, unlike in years past, I actually was working while I was the IAAM. The last IAAM I went to was 6 years ago in Los Angeles. Due to college and missions trips and living overseas, I've been unable to go. This year was different. Since I now work for VenuWorks I actually had some stuff to do. It was fun walking around and talking with vendors. It's amazing how people take you seriously when you actually have a job, business cards and some hair on your face.

This is a picture of my sister Lindsay and I with some of the agents from Paradise Artists. This picture actually was on the Pollstar website for a while.

One thing that I really enjoyed about being able to go this year was getting to travel with my grandpa Howard. I spent a night at his house before we drove to Des Moines and flew to Salt Lake City. On the way home we were on the same flights as some of the people from the VenuWorks office in Ames. He and my grandma Bobby went to the IAAM with us in 2000 when it was in Nashville.

Another really nice thing about the IAAM this year was getting to spend time with my brother. I hadn't seen him in over a year. He flew in from Singapore and landed in Salt Lake around 1 in the morning. As tired as I was, I couldn't refuse his offer to get something to eat. It was great getting to spend time with him.

Once I got back to Davenport our building hosted a 7 mile road race. The BIX is a race that has become a tradition in the Quad Cities. There were somewhere between 17,000 and 18,000 runners. We were the host for their registration as well as a sports and wellness expo. Total we probably had around 30,000 people coming through our building on the day of the race. Overall, things went really well. It was kind of strange to see people getting ready for a race and not competing in it with them. Sometimes I still have that running-mindset from high school.

Aside from these events there really hasn't been too much going on. There are public meetings taking place in our building to determine whether or not a casino should move in. Last night was the first of 3 that we will be hosting.