A brush with immortality.

Each fall we prepare and publish a special report on the annual conference of this association - and of this profession. We use page space for this report because documenting and presenting this special experience to you serves an important purpose.

Believe me, if the only motive for doing this report had to do with tradition or some similar, singularly unimpressive notion, we wouldn't use valuable staff time to prepare the piece, and we wouldn't use your valuable page space to run it.

That said, let me share some of the reasoning behind this special feature.

My stepping off point is actually a day many years ago. I was in a classroom studying philosophy. On that day, our professor was telling us about various philosophical views on the idea of immortality.

A central theme in that discussion was the idea of identifying with something larger than one's self. If, the professor argued, we can push back the boundaries of our finite existence to become integrated with something larger than ourselves, we achieve immortality. With that idea as a basis, we then delved into various cosmologies, all of which served the purpose of obliterating the space and time boundaries that define our respective finite existences.

The intriguing idea of becoming a part of something larger than one's self has stuck with me over the years. To have a larger story that we can be a meaningful part of offers a powerful comfort to the longing for meaningful existence.

Without making more of this concept than is warranted in a column like this, suffice it to say that I believe that the annual gathering we hold for this profession is in many respects fundamentally linked to this idea of being (and yearning to be) a part of something larger than ourselves.

I know that many people involved in the meetings industry look at the annual conference of a profession in terms of meeting-room sizes, banquet event orders, bus staging, AV support, and so forth. I also know that many people attend conferences and see nothing beyond the schedules that they are following, the people whom they are meeting, the food that they are eating, and the special events that they are attending.

Inasmuch as the world still turns, I suppose that these attitudes and views are just fine.

Yet for anyone who might care to look just a little bit more deeply, what can also be seen is a facet of an annual conference that transcends the details. The extract that emerges from all the activities and discussions - and even from the atmosphere of the conference - is the essence out of which a profession reaffirms, redefines, reinvigorates, and redirects itself. As this happens, every single person involved with the profession - regardless of whether or not that person even attended the conference - gains a sense of being a part of something larger than him- or herself.

Unlike any other possible professional experience, an annual conference reminds us again that we are all a part of a much larger story. No matter where we work, how old we are, and even what specialty we practice in, we are all joined through a story that is far greater than any one of us. An annual conference brings that point home again and again in the affirmations, feelings, and connections it provides. (For those of you who know me, this is one of the reasons I am always so tuned into the tone and feel of our conference. These are significant influences on our collective perception of what this profession is and what it can be.)

No, my brief comments here are not meant to touch on the concept of immortality in the sense of some kind of endless existence. My focus has instead been on making clear that we are all involved in a profound story of being a part of something larger than ourselves - and that nowhere is that fact more evident than at our annual conference.

For that reason and for the meaning that our get-together offers, we take seriously each fall our responsibility to present to each NEHA member our synopsis of this event and what it says about where we stand as a profession and where we are headed. Ours is a wonderful story of serving the public good, and it is a story that we have all made possible.

We hope that in reviewing this piece, each NEHA member feels that sense of connection with the larger story - and, that in the process, you experience at least a brush with immortality, as well as a deeper sense of your life's meaning.