Leverage.

I have not had a chance to sit in front of my computer for more than 30min since last thursday "orz

Anyways, IMPACT CONFERENCE '10 ;D
It was very worthwhile, listened to amazing speakers, met cool delegates (and impact members), attended a fantastic gala and is generally inspireeeed.

The two days were PACKED with events, no time to do anything (including sleep, but thats more my problem). Will do my best to recount the memorable ones. (sit tight, long long post).

Friday
700-900am-registration: Joyce and Qiqi were late, so I had to subway down by myself. Did not know that I could take a streetcar so I lugged my freakin heavy bag all the way down Bay St "orz Met with James at registration and practice entering and exiting from group conversations. Really glad that we started talking to ppl asap, set a good momentum for the rest of the conference.

930-1030am: Opening keynote: Emotional Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurs by Cameron Herold.
One of my favourite keynotes! I think almost everyone was able to empathize with the topic. Funny moment when Cameron read a list of qualities and asked everyone to stand up when five of those quality described you. In the end almost everyone stood up, then he goes "what I've just read was a list of symptoms of manic depression" XD.
The roller coaster consist of 4 stages arranged in a kinda skewed sine wave shape.

1. Uninformed Optimism. When you're really up to it and think you can do annnnything! Things you should do at this stage include marketing, meeting new people/media, and brainstorming ideas. However, do NOT purchase anything. At all.
2. Informed Pessimism. When reality starts to set in and you are worrying about whether you can accomplish everything you set out to do. Things you should do include crunching them numbers and making a business plan.
   
3. Crisis of Meaning. "oh shit there's no way I can do this. So stressed omg ahhhhhhhhh!" Things you should do include finding support or a mentor, flushing out your feelings, and jut relaaax.
4. Informed Optimism. "it's all good, you can do anything and you know how to do anything".

Quotations aren't actual quotations, just my paraphrasing XD

1030-1130am: Get Connected! The Power of Networking and Creating Meaningful Relationships by Matt Tod.
Great meet and greet activity, good keynote by Matt as well. In a lot of the keynotes, the speakers all stressed the importance of MEANINGFUL relationships. Taking, but also importantly, giving (I gotta work on this)! Translates into my personal life as I gotta be nicer haha. Iuno though, cause I'm not the kind that...uhh...accommodating? So being nice requires me to ACT nice, which isn't the most true image of me.
Anyways, we did this cool activity using playing cards. We had to say as many things about ourselves as the number on the card to each person we meet. No repeating things to the next person either! Really forced me to think about myself and what I see myself as.

300-400pm: Discovering Your Passion and Using It Wisely by Sally Han.
I have rather mixed feelings to Sally's workshop. On one hand, I reeeeeally respect her for speaking from the bottom of her heart. It made the presentation really choppy, but every word she really believed in every word that she said. Very admirable. On the other hand, she talked alot about religion, which was personal to her. Many people there were nonreligious, so we did not feel a strong connection and therefore was bored. Quite on the fence with whether I enjoyed it or not.
Side note: the jewelry that Sally makes are AMAZING.

Somewhere in between the things mentioned above (a rant): The service at the front desk of the hotel was TERRIBLE. When Joyce, Qiqi and I went to check in, we were informed that our room was not yet available. Problem 1: the room should be. I was concerned, so I inquired about when the room will be available. The guy helping us replied "oh I don't know, it's not." in a really impatient and I-just-really-don't-want-to-be-here tone. Problem 2: not the best attitude. Same thing happened when we came back to check in for the second time. The lady sounded like she was pissed off at us, which makes no sense as we're the ones not getting our room that should have been ready 2 hours ago! None of the two seemed slightly willing to assist us. Thankfully, the lady that was helping us the third time was friendly and most importantly actually helpful <_<

700-1000pm: Gala with a keynote by Michael Hyatt.
Susie and I wore the same dress! It was so much of a coincidence (both bought on taobao) that I wasn't even upset LOL
The gala was really fancy haha. Appetizers during the general reception was so so delicious, made me want to stalk the waiters around XD My only complaint would be the ridiculously tall center pieces on the tables. It completely prevents anyone from seeing the people across from them. It was very troublesome to get it removed.
Unfortunately I don't quite remember what Michael's keynote was about. It was a really good one though! XD
*later edit* ah-ha! He talked about failing fast and often. This relates back to The Dip by Seth Godwin and How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer respectively. Go read those books. Another point is to "know where the puck will be", aka anticipate the future.

Late at Night:
gossip session yay! It's ridiculously easy to bond with people that you share a room with <3

Saturday
900-1000am: Opening Keynote: Yanik Silver.
Started to take more detailed notes haha. Yanik stressed the significance of coming up with a vision so everyone is on the same page, having at least a 10x margin to be able to fail fast and often, having a loyal fanbase (just look at the hardcore apple fanatics), and of course, to have FUN!

1000-1045am: Meet Canada's Entrepreneurs with Bobby Umar.

Bobby's speech is what struck/inspired me the most. Chased him down twice afterwards to talk to him about it :]

Key point: YOU GOTTA WANT IT! if so, everything will appear to fall in place as the result of your hardwork. (latter half is my interpretation).
Tactics of networking include:

• Approach: "excuse me..." "my name is..." important to repeat your name many times so it'll stick. (I clearly remember Alex repeating his name at least 5 times in his JA exec speech).
  
• Art of the Conversation: Go with the flow of the conversation and ask the right questions. Every conversation has a beat, follow that and it'll never be awkward.
  
• Seal the Deal: NEVER just walk away from a conversation without a solid closing. Set up follow ups (I need to email Bobby. I will do it. If not today, tomorrow. <-public accountability, which Yanik mentioned). Also important to keep moving in networking events such as conferences. I made a conscious effort to sit with brand new people at every meal. Really paid off as I met a whole bunch of amaaaaazing delegates.

Bobby also talked a lot about branding, though not in the conventional sense. A personal brand is a promise to everyone that you come in contact with. My personal brand...iuno, have to figure it out haha. Attending the conference made me more aware of what I need to work on. Another important point that I walked away with is that caring+communication=connection.

445-545pm: I'm Young&Curious, What's Next? by Brian Wong.
Brian, is extremely good at presenting.
Love love love his analogies. Eg. "Statistics are like boogers. They're useless once you pick them" XD There was also one about networking and picking up girls, both you must not do with an agenda.
A tip that he had on time management (everyone seems so busy these days) are to

• Delegate (outsource) whatever other people can do. Especially the mundane tasks.
• Differ the unimportant tasks. I actually didn't catch what he said about this, so gonna leave it at at.
  
• Delete the stupid things that you should not do.
  

The girls (and a guy) were lining up to take a photo with him after the workshop XD

Bad bad lighting.

/end recount of events. I don't believe anyone read the whole thing.

So yes, the conference was so worth it! Really made me believe that everyone has the potential to do whatever they want. Just have to supplement it with really really hardwork. Listening to the keynotes and talking with fellow delegates pushed me further along the great big journey of self discovery xD
Here I shall make a promise to myself. Once I figure out what I want to get out of life, I will immediately take action to achieve it.