The iLead conference was a great experience for me. I hoped to collect leadership strategies that I could adapt or use in teaching. Some of the sessions were student-led, and some felt like they were thrown together at the last minute. Some where well developed, funny, and attention grabbing, but held little leadership content, other than "don't ignore anyone in the organization".
For me, the sessions that made it really worth it were the ones led by Ryan Penneau.
Penneau is a "college speaker" and founder of "Take Back College". His small session entailed Commitment, and cleverly caused the listener to draw upon an emotional response connected to a wronged loved one and led you to connect that emotion with commitments. It was very well done, and at that point felt like the only thing at the whole conference worth listening to.
Penneau turned out to be the end-Keynote speaker as well. He spoke again about commitment, but used his inexhaustive energies to model several methods for not only keeping everyone awake, but interested. He instructed us to embrace fear, to step out of the circle of safety, because "growth only occurs in moments of vulnerability". It was really an exciting and motivating experience.
I had the opportunity to speak with him after the conference. He is very approachable and friendly, and it was really a joy to meet him. I look forward to being one of the people that acts on their ideas and desires, instead of tucking them away to be forgotten. I will get something out of everything, and really, be the change I want to see in the world.
I do have one criticism about the conference, though. I had the option to select a vegetarian lunch when I registered for the conference, some time ago. The non-vegetarian lunch consisted of a ciabatta bread sandwich with turkey or roast beef, cheese, and lettuce. The bag contained a bag of chips, and Oreo cookies. I had to hunt for the "vegetarian bags" and found only a table with a few stacked side salads (containing ONLY spring mix greens) and a tub containing approximately 3 tablespoons of dressing. That's it. No cookies or chips, or even sliced vegetables to go on the salad. Honestly, if you are going to offer a vegetarian option well in advance, you should actually offer something. 50 calories worth of dressing on 20 calories of spring mix does NOT a lunch make. Very bad form.
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