I think I may have forgotten to mention this.
I’m at Catalyst in Atlanta.
What is Catalyst, you ask?
Well, according to the Catalyst website, “Catalyst was created to meet the felt need that existed within the church leader space for a leadership event that was focused on a new generation of church leaders.”
Is yours truly, AnnieBlogs, a church leader? Why no. No she is not.
But. I am a Christian with a few leadership roles, and a bunch of my friends were coming here, so I jumped in the car and sped down to Atlanta [which a trip to the hometown is never a bad idea]. I’m shacking up with Bianca, Lindsey, and Trish. Bianca is a newlywed and threatened more than once to cuddle with me. I said, “you’re the best, but no thanks.”
We ate lunch with a bunch of friends, I met tons of people and the conversations started like this: “Hi, I’m Annie. I recognize you from Twitter.” And it has been true every time. It seems that on Wednesday, the Labs day, most people are fairly familiar with each other. Thursday promises 13,000 people and I PROMISE I won’t know most of them.
There were two main highlights from Wednesday […besides the friends. You know me, the people are always the highlight.]
Highlight #1: I had a three hour dinner with two of my very favorite dudes- Jeremy and Kyle. We all work together pretty regularly, but don’t see each other much. It was fun and thought-provoking. It was silly and deep. It was business and good times. I describe Kyle and Jeremy like this- they are the brothers that I have always never wanted. They pick on me and annoy me and I love them both to pieces.
[This was us in 2009. My hair was LONG and they are TALL. They are still tall, but in 2010, I cut my hair.]
Kyle took a picture at dinner of Jeremy and I in deep thought. Or….
We’re having a staring contest. In which case, I won. I always do.
Highlight #2: The labs on Wednesday were phenomenal- my bud-ski Anne Jackson and my other bud-ski Carlos Whittaker, Jeremy, Michael Hyatt, John Ortberg.
But by far, the moment that I would have driven all this way for- the lab by Jamie Tworkowski from To Write Love on Her Arms and Scott Harrison from Charity:Water.
Now, you know me. You know I don’t get star struck. But when it comes to the world of non-profit workers [like me at Mocha Club], Scott Harrison is pretty much the bees’ knees. There are tons of things that Charity:Water does REALLY right and he’s the head of that ship. So. I pretty much sat as close to the front as possible, hung on his every word, and avoided eye contact.
Because I’m mature.
He’s just the coolest. In my mind, he’s the quarterback of the football team at Non-Profit High School. So it was pretty much delightful to be in the same room listening to him.
[By the way, Jamie is cool too. We have lots of mutual friends and talked for a bit. I just have a major NPO crush on Charity:Water.]
So that was a very long discussion on my first day ever at a Catalyst event.
Today holds lots of promise, including lunch with one of my heroes, Seth Godin. I haven’t seen him since New York, so I’m guessing I’ll tear up when I hug him.
Cause you know, that’s how I do. I’m a crier.
See y’all tomorrow.
