The White Board Sessions needs a unique setting. A church is too familiar. The movie theater is too limiting. University auditoriums too sterile...
A month ago, I looked around Reston Town Center and thought, What pastor wouldn't want to spend a day here?" New-urban environment, great restaurants, vintage movie theater, Starbucks, Wi-Fi, free parking garages, gorgeous cityscape, Starbucks... =)
Enter the exclusive Reston Hyatt Hotel. It's a beauutiful venue, but expensive too. Ridiculously cost prohibitive in fact. Still, I didn't take it off the drawing board. Two weeks ago, I dropped by the hotel for a second meeting, praying the whole time for God's intervention.
Something was different at that second meeting. The manager acted rushed. She whisked me into the large ballroom and quoted a price that not only matched our budget, but also gave us 3 times more space. The venue has such a great vibe, including an outdoor balcony overlooking the Town Center. I knew at that moment God had something huge in store for May 22. It's booked. Speaker line-up still to come...
Ben - Ok, so this is for real? I thought maybe you were punkin' us! Dude, you know I'm not a conference guy, but if you're really doing this...I'm there. May 22 is on my calendar.
Posted by: Stuart | November 29, 2007 at 10:16 AM
Sweet! I think we should start an unofficial earl registration right now! haha...this event sounds amazing and i can only imagine the folks you will have for us.....see you on may 22
Posted by: J. Cardinell | November 29, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Oh, it's already been 'brought-en'. =)
Seriously, it's on. Can't wait to unfold this thing for you... and see you at the actual event.
Posted by: Ben Arment | November 29, 2007 at 12:42 PM
This will be AWESOME to have pastors from many walks of life, together for the gospel (not referring to the T4G conference). If there is any fallout, remember your buddy Mike can always step in to be a filler;)
Posted by: Tim | November 29, 2007 at 12:56 PM
Tim, your Christmas Guilford site looks awesome! Great work...
Posted by: Ben Arment | November 29, 2007 at 01:18 PM
I am interested to see the speaker line up.
This gives me another good reason to visit DC, never been before. But, I would really love a good excuse for coming up.
Posted by: Boyd Bettis | November 29, 2007 at 02:12 PM
Boyd, I'm going to start profiling speakers on Monday... one for each day. The Town Center is 5 minutes from the Dulles International Airport. Awesome location.
Posted by: Ben Arment | November 29, 2007 at 04:04 PM
Ben, thanks man. I mentioned the idea to my wife, she is digging the idea of coming up to DC for a couple days. I am excited to see the line-up.
Posted by: Boyd Bettis | November 29, 2007 at 10:34 PM
Wow. You really meant it! Sounds great!
Posted by: Jumaine | November 30, 2007 at 10:20 AM
Greetings, just wandering by (via Collide). So, what's this conference about, exactly? I didn't see that part in the blog posts.
Blessings on your work!
Posted by: Allan W. | November 30, 2007 at 02:02 PM
Hey Allan, glad you found me. Just read back a few posts on this category stream (there are only 3-4) and you'll get the big picture:
http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/conference_in_the_making/index.html
Posted by: Ben Arment | November 30, 2007 at 02:26 PM