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After having the opportunity to do 2 speeches with 500+ people per speech in Kansas, only having 65 people in my speech in New Orleans was admittedly a bit of a let down. I would have liked to have had more people in the speech, but the group I had to work with were (as I expected) a fantastic group. They were so well behaved and so quiet, I almost wish they were a bit more rambuctious!

SADD was a fantastic way to end my 2006-2007 speaking schedule. A really nice touch at this Conference was the mandatory student evaluations after every workshop. What was unique about them was that they were tear-off sheets so that the Staff of SADD would collect one part and I, the speaker, would have the opportunity to collect the other half of the sheets.

My evaluations? 65 students – 49 gave 5/5; 1 gave 4.5/5; 12 gave 4/5 and 1 gave 3/5. With 62 out of 65 evaluations being a 4/5 or better, those evaluations speak for themselves for me. Having evaluations makes it much easier for an analytical speaker like me to not have to worry too much in my own head about what students thought, because the evidence is right in front of me.

With another couple of days to go in the SADD Conference, it’s nice that the pressure of the speech is off and I can essentially sit back and relax. (While getting active in hyper cheers of course!)

When I found out that I would have the opportunity to speak in New Orleans for the SADD National Conference, I knew right away that I didn’t want it to be an in-and-out. I wanted to take some time to take in the city and experience “N’Orlans”. So my girlfriend (Jodi) and I decided to spend 8 days down here, 4 for the Conference and 4 for some vacation time.

We arrived quite late on Friday night around 1 am and impressively, Jodi decided she wasn’t tired and wanted to check out Bourbon Street–I say impressively because her bedtime is normally closer to 10 pm than the wee hours of the morning. Even at the late hour, the reputation of New Orleans did not disappoint. With a large music festival in town, Bourbon Street was wall-to-wall with over 5,000 people. The best part of the party to me was watching a street band perform a mix of hip-hop and jazz through tubas, trombones, trumpets and bass drums. People were crowded around, dancing on the street in an incredibly peaceful atmosphere. As a big fan of the movie “Undercover Blues”, this was the kind of New Orleans experience I was hoping for.

The SADD Conference begins on Sunday, so the partying will cease and the educational fun will begin. With this being the 2nd National Conference in 3 weeks that I am speaking for, I am looking forward to seeing if there will be any overlap of staff and students. After having such a blast at the NASC Conference, I can’t wait to wrap up my year with one final speech hear in the Big Easy.

I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore. In fact, I KNOW I’m not in Kansas anymore because the humidity is all but gone back in Toronto. In a week I head to New Orleans for the SADD National Conference and if I thought the Kansas humidity was bad, I’m sure I’m in for some trouble when I head down to the Jazz capital of the world.

NASC was an extraordinary experience. Something to see and witness for yourself and difficult to put into words just how spectacular it was. So I’m going to leave my comments to this…it was spectacular and I can’t wait to have the opportunity to do it again.

For now…SLEEP!

See you in a week…GO JAYS GO!