I’m back from my trip to the ATA (American Teleservices Association) convention. The convention was great; if I could just get there without needing to travel. Here are some random thoughts and musings from the past three days:
- Two of my four flights were late; fortunately, they weren’t at critical points in my itinerary. Still, a 50 percent is not too good.
- The 5 dollars box snack on the airlines was largely non-nutritious junk food. So I bought semi-nutritious food in the terminal. (The Pop tarts were quite good, but the Fig Newtons weren’t as tasty as I remembered.)
- Despite talking to people all day long at the convention, I had few truly meaningful conversations. Three exceptions were the podcast interviews I recorded and the fourth was on the shuttle to the airport. It seems that people either had an agenda or weren’t really listening. It true communication a dying art?
- I was blogging about the ATA convention. I did this a little bit for the ATSI convention in June as a trial. The blogging went pretty well and many people (presumably not at the convention) were reading my posts.
- In addition to the interviews and the blogging, I also snapped about 300 photos, so I was a busy guy.
- In order to focus on the convention, I didn’t check email or voicemail. I came home to 279 email messages and five voicemail messages (an interesting ratio, given that I cover the call center industry). It’s a bit overwhelming and it will likely take the rest of the week to catch up.
- As I predicted, Detroit won the WNBA in three games. Since I missed watching it live, I plan to view a recording tonight.
- I also missed the debate (and would have skipped it anyway). I understand the question was asked if healthcare is a right, a responsibility, or a privilege. It’s not in the constitution or bill of rights, so I’d have to say that it’s not a right. Besides, housing is a more basic need than healthcare and no politicians are running around claiming everyone has a right to housing.
- Finally, this thought from the Tuesday issue of A Word A Day: “Journalists do not believe the lies of politicians, but they do repeat them—which is even worse!” -Michel Colucci, comedian, and actor (1944-1986)
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book The Successful Author for insider tips and insights.