On Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend the Global Services Summit (http://www.uscsi.org/ServicesSummit2010.html) in Washington, D.C. as Press because of the blog I started this summer. The conference was about "Breaking the Deadlock on Services Trade and Investment" and featured a keynote from Pascal Lamy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_Lamy), the Director-General of the WTO. 

 

I was able to meet some fellow Press, Sam Gilston (http://linkd.in/SamGilston) and his daughter Meredith, who started "The Export Practitioner" (http://www.exportprac.com/). Sam is also the Editor and Publisher of the "Washington Tariff and Trade Letter" (http://www.wttlonline.com/) and owner of Gilston-Kalin Communications, LLC.

 

One of the lessons learned? Start a blog, put it major sweat equity, and you are press. In many cases, you won't have to pay full price to be able to benefit from attending awesome conferences. Perhaps you can offer to volunteer! Conferences always need volunteers. If you're passionate about something and think you can write about it or interview people about it, start a blog about the subject and then start applying for conferences.

 

For more tips on getting the most out of a conference, check out my interview with Eric Norlin, the founder of 3 separate conferences:

(http://johnexleyonline.com/2010/08/20/eric-norlin-%E2%80%98the-zealous-conference-founder%E2%80%99-tells-his-story-part-22/)

On Wednesday, I was at the "Global Services Summit" on International Trade here at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. I missed a call from my dad and got a text message just moments later...it sounded urgent.

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I stepped outside and called him back. My grandma (we have called her "Grams") had passed away just 10 minutes earlier. She had lived with our family for as long as I can remember. I was crushed...couldn't stand, couldn't think of anything to say. 

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Well since then I haven't been able to bring myself to share this with my friends, to tell the story online. Today, I decided to. As I posted on Facebook earlier, the most amazing woman went to Heaven on Wednesday...my Grams.

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We were so tight; she housed more overnights for my best friends and I than I think she was even aware of. We went on special times, watched movies, cracked each other up, and just had fun. She was always there in my childhood, throughout my life. Grams...thanks for everything, you touched so many of my friends' lives; I love you forever.

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 (These two pictures above and below were taken last summer when Grams took me out to my favorite Italian restaurant in Canandaigua, NY for my 20th birthday)

- closing thought below -  

 

Please, Please, PLEASE do me one favor: spend more time with your grandparents while you can. Actually, spend more time with everyone you love, while you can....obvious, right? It's not always so obvious for everyone...you just never know when you'll be saying goodbye for the last time. There are more important things in life than your work, your overwhelming inbox of emails, your favorite TV show. 

 

Today my friend Paola from Colombia and I got to meet Tom Friedman (http://twitter.com/tomfriedman)!

Our International Business & Trade class at American University's Washington Semester Program attended an event hosted by the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution focused on discussing "China's new talent recruitment plan and evaluating the Chinese strategy (both on its own merits and in a global context)."

Tom is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and a columnist for the NY Times. You can read his bio here: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/index.html  

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This past weekend (September 18th) I flew home to Rochester, NY (from Washington, D.C. where I'm studying at American University for the Washington Semester Program) for my cousin Julie's wedding!

It was epic. With all the family there and everyone's spirits soaring as we celebrated Jules' big day, it was right up there as arguably the event of the decade for me!  

Here's a pic of me with my beautiful cousin, the bride herself: Jules! 

 

NOTE: funny story...I sent a couple tweets about the wedding and checked into the church and reception venue on Foursquare as well, confusing venture capitalist Mark Suster (http://twitter.com/msuster) into thinking I had just gotten married! He sent me a tweet congratulating me on my marriage: 

@JohnExley congrats on getting married!

— Mark Suster (@msuster) September 19, 2010

 No need to worry, however, I tweeted him back that it was indeed my cousin's wedding. 

This past May I volunteered for TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/) at their "TechCrunch Disrupt" (http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/2010-nyc) conference in NYC. It was the best conference I have ever been a part of, and meeting a hero of mine was definitely one of the reasons why. 

Jason Calacanis (http://calacanis.com) is a legend. Born in Brooklyn, he is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, host of "This Week in Startups", blogger/email-newsletter-writer, web celebrity, and many other things haha. 

Follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/jason

NOTE: many thanks to my man Tim Holladay (http://twitter.com/tholladay), the CEO of Brand Adoption (http://www.brandadoption.com/) for taking the picture!

This was in an art gallery in Chicago during the Nextvoice247 photoshoot, taken by Leigh Caraccioli (http://twitter.com/fleurdeleigh). What a memory...this was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had, and fuels my drive to one day get into the fashion industry somehow!

Leigh remains one of my all-time most favorite personalities to work with. Really nice person, always energetic like I am!

Also, my time with Nextvoice247 was important. I developed my writing, communication, and community management skills as I blogged and hosted an emerging leader interview series for the Chicago-based startup. The founder, Gilbert Melott (http://twitter.com/nextvoice247), is still a trusted friend and mentor of mine. 

What a truly amazing time!