SB2K9 - by Katie Long
March 15, 2009
Spring Break is here
and for most people that doesn’t really mean anything anymore. If
you have children you might identify it with the brood enjoying (or
whining about) an entire week away from school. Other people
associate Spring Break with sunny beaches and warm destinations.
Most people reading this probably think they are too busy or have
too much work to enjoy an entire week away from the office so close
to the beginning of the year. You may have heard some of your
associates talk about going to industry conferences and these
associates probably told you about the speakers or classes. What
you may not have realized is that conference season just happens to
overlap with Spring Break season and while you don’t get to spend
the entire time floating in the pool, you won’t regret the time you
spent away from the office. Yes, its true…Conferences are like
Spring Break for grown ups. Before you discard this as hogwash
please allow me to explain.
Spring Break is technically a study break or a catch-up
week mid semester. While good majorities of student use it for
recreational activities others hit the books and get up to speed on
their homework or reading. Whatever a person chooses, the week
serves as a way to recharge and refresh before the semester picks up
speed and as the summer inches closer. For many students in the
north Spring Break is also used as a tool to combat seasonal
affective disorder. It’s ok if you don’t know what this is because
being from the beautiful state of Texas very few of us will ever
experience it. Seasonal affective disorder is just a fancy way of
saying you get depressed in the winter. While here in Houston,
February and March simply mean the Rodeo’s back in town to those up
north it can mean sub zero temperatures without any holiday cheer to
take your mind off the fact that you haven’t seen green in months.
Schools realized if they gave students some time off in early spring
when students had the opportunity to travel to warmer climates and
escape frost bitten monotony if but for a week it really helped with
performance and mood. This is where conferences come in. Winter
depression doesn’t just affect people in school and it may not make
you ‘depressed’ in the clinical sense of the word. You might be
able to function just fine but anyone scraping ice off their car
before they go to work day after day could find themselves totally
bummed out, daydreaming of shorts and Tommy Bahama shirts.
Conferences give adults the opportunity to escape for a week while
still being productive.
Some people don’t think they can sacrifice the time away
to go to a conference but just like a study break or catch-up break
conference actually allow you to step back, gain new perspective and
return to your company recharged and refreshed, usually with some
new ideas that will help you power through the rest of the year.
I recently attended my first conferences and it was such
a great experience. ACCA and IAQA held a joint conference in Fort
Worth and NADCA held their conference in Orlando in the last few
weeks. As you might have noticed both of these locations are in
subtropical climates. While this isn’t a huge change of pace for us
Texans, the yanks really seem to get a kick out of it. What really
surprised me was the range of speakers, marketing experts,
economist, inspectors, scientists, and industry hot shots all came
together to teach, debate and to get people thinking about their
business from new angels. Being around people from the entire
nation and even some foreign countries helps you understand how your
company fits into the bigger picture. So if you weren’t able to
attend a conference this year, you might want to take this time
reflect on your goals for the year and accomplishments thus far. You
might even want to find someone who attended a conference and ask
them some questions about the benefits and advantages of attending.
Besides being informative they are always a lot of fun. Hopefully
this will help you realize that you can take Spring Break back from
the kids but still remain a serious businessman.
Duct Cleaning and HVAC Systems Cleaning in Texas
