I circled the globe in one hour Friday night. The 7 people I met at our International Reception took me from one side of the world to the other and reminded me of how far IDEA's reach has become over the years.

Adeline from France gets the award for most World conferences attended (17! Thank you Adeline!); Ayten Altun is a sports trainer at KOC University in Istanbul, Turkey; Tamer Farag is the CEO of Global Sports in Egypt (he owns and operates fitness franchises there); Matej Bunderla and Teodor Cizl, both personal trainers, came from Slovenia; Cynthia Carrion is the Undersecretary for Sports & Wellness Tourism for the Phillippines (the whole country); and Luke Chen the Secretary General for Fitness China in Beijing (e-mail me a copy of the photo, Luke!). It's always so humbling for me to meet these members and try to understand the amazing commitment they make to plan, do the visa paperwork and travel to our conferences each year. It inspires the IDEA staff to try to do a better job every year. I know it inspires me. We are so grateful for the diversity you lend to our community and the ideas you bring to us from your countries!

Many thanks also to our tireless (and crazy) group of IDEA Assistants. After the International Reception, we headed over to the Assistant party, which is always a great time and the true marker for the IDEA staff to know that we have rounded the corner and are headed for home with the annual convention. Milo Levell, who DJed the Party in Paradise on Thursday night, also mixed for this party, so you can bet it (hip) hopped. Even after an exhausting week of work, there were some pretty slick dance moves going on.

Saturday morning I made it to one session, which I had highlighted as a "must-attend" even before I left the office for Vegas last week. Thank you Jay Blahnik, Chalene Johnson, Michael Tchao and moderator Bob Esquerre for making this 7:30 AM time slot on the conference's last day so worthwhile for us all to attend. The panel's topic was "What's Hot Now! Consumer Trend Watch." Since we are in the business of serving consumers (and in a very uncertain economic climate), the topics discussed here may well have superseded the importance of any other ground that was covered this year. One of the great take-home messages by the experts was to use the many gifts we have as a fitness community to inspire and motivate others toward a lifelong embrace of a whole, healthy lifestyle. "Connection and accountability hold the power," observed Blahnik. "It's not a lack of information it's a lack of motivation. As fitness professionals we have 10 times more energy on our worst days than most bears do on their best days. What can we do with this energy--these considerable gifts--to motivate others? How can we use this energy to create?"

Ask yourself those questions and share your ideas with me. What are you doing to create, motivate and inspire your community? Someone in your family? Anyone?

I'm signing off for now and heading home to beautiful San Diego. Thanks for reading my blogs and for giving me the opportunity to share my IDEA World Fitess Convention experience with you.  It's been another fantastic week and a privilege to be part of it for another year.

Be well, stay in touch, and keep working your unique brand of magic!