One year? That MARC must be one tough railroad. Just a machinist since High School shop class, and not very graceful.dave

Thanks to the several people who sent me private emails about my postings. None of them were emotionally reactive, all rational and thoughtful. If anybody cares, there were some common threads in what i recieved. First, nobody had anything to say about the quality of the food at the banquet or in support of or in opposition to my suggestions about the awards. The hot button seemed to be my wishing to make the seminar presentations more smooth and practiced. Nobody voiced any disagreement with my characterizations of some of the presentations. There were two main lines of thought: first, i was right but they were happy they didn't have to say it, and, second, i was right and was a heartless ba**ard to have said it. No further comment on either of these theories. The one reply I got from an actual presenter also brought up a good thought regarding the Power Point presentations: when all they do is the same job as a printed outline or overhead prejector foils, they are a high tech distraction from the message. When they provide visual images that complement the spoken message, they have a mnemonic effect that makes the message memorable (like alliteration). A couple people mentioned that they valued messages from people who had no vested interest in pushing a product in their seminars more than those that were there to sell. While i didn't address this in my previous postings, it seems to me that if one considers the messenger and the quality of the message in terms of the strength of the pitch, there may still be a lot of useful information built around the pitch. Critical thinking is important to make the distinction.dave

hell yeah he should not be allowed to even write anything!!..this guy should shut his lips until he saw all the work that went into that convention..i am not from that area and i thought that EVERYTHING was done very professionally..TVRM guys don't let this "dave" guy bother you..hes just a fly on the wall that needs to be swatted!!thats all i have to say about that!