The Power Within

Even though I did not have the day off, I didn't go to work today. But I won't get in trouble with my employer, I was part of a group of employees invited to attend a The Power Within seminar at the Palais des congrès, in Montreal. They tour North America with different groups of motivators and other speakers.

The group that was in Montreal today consisted of Mike Lipkin, Loretta LaRoche, Phil Town, Dr. Antonia Coello Novello (former US Surgeon General), Richard Dolan, Martin Sheen and William Jefferson Clinton (AKA Bill Clinton, who had a gig as the 42nd US President). One deception for me, Garry Kasparov was originally scheduled to appear at this seminar, but that did not happen...

I've had corporate one or two days seminars at the office before, but this was quite different. First, we share a huge room with about 4000 people. Impressive. Second, it was a series of speakers, each with their own style. I did like this experience overall. Not everything applied to my life, but the beauty of the concept is that with this many speakers, at least some of them will be interesting to most attendees.

We learned things, laughed, reflected on issues and had a good time. During the day, people would come and go, some were talking during presentations but fortunately there wasn't a big problem in my area and I was able to follow all the speeches. Beside microphones, there were also two big screens on either side of the stage, so we could see the presenters better. We had pretty good seats, only six rows behind the VIP section.

Of course, the big event was Bill Clinton's speech, which was kept for the end. Interestingly enough, when it was his turn, there was very little circulation from the attendees and it was very quiet. It's not often that "regular people" get to see a former US President give a speech like this and Clinton is certainly respected by many people, including us Canadians. While not pointing fingers at anyone, he talked about political issues, the current economy and what can be done by leaders and citizens to help the situation.

If you are given the opportunity to assist to such a seminar, I would suggest you go. It's very interesting and at the very least, a change to your usual routine, I'm sure!