NPE and Groundhog Day

NPE ended in Nashville on Groundhog Day, and while I've been back a week now I'm only slowly, like a groundhog, ready to try peaking my head out from under my piled-up desk to see if life (and work) is still going on as I left it. It is...but before I get back to it, a quick shout-out to all the great folks I had a chance to talk with at NPE in Nashville. For me you folks are one of the great pleasures of this job and I truly enjoy meeting you and all my conversations with you (however brief they sometimes are) as I learn about each of you and your businesses. You're an engaging and thought-provoking bunch and I learn enough at each of these shows to fire up the magazine (and future seminar programs) for another year. So to speakers, contractors, exhibitors -- old friends and new -- thanks for taking the time to talk with me, sharing your concerns, complaints, successes, and hopes for the future. I appreciate it and look forward to doing it again, just like the groundhog, in another year.