As promised, here are the slides and video (thanks HigherEd Live) from my closing keytalk at the #SAtechBOS conference. Since I’ve already shared my thoughts on the talk, I’ll just keep it short and sweet and end here. Enjoy!

About a year ago my brother’s wife, Suruchi, brought up the idea of doing a big surprise 40th birthday bash for him. At the time, the rest of the brothers were excited, but planning something a year out with my family is next to impossible.

Fast forward a year later and over the past weekend, we did the impossible. All four of my brothers, my dad, and myself rented a lake house for four days and three nights in central Wisconsin. Though we grew up taking road trip vacations two times per year, this was the first time all the brothers have taken a vacation together in at least 13 years.
It took a lot of pre-planning to make the vacation happen, but for me it was totally worth every second because no matter what, there is still nothing quite like family. As we all grow older and spread out across the country, quality “together-time” is a rare thing.

Most of our extended family is in Germany and we don’t get to see them very often, so I’m jealous of families who do a big family reunion every year. But coming out of our inaugural family reunion, I have a lofty goal to make it an annual event and an even loftier goal of owning lake property that we can keep depositing new memories into year after year.

Twice a year the sunset lines up perfectly with every east-west street in Manhattan. New Yorkers call it…Manhattanhenge. ACbert and I made it a point to check out this year’s Manhattan Solstice in action. While the sunset was impressive, the crowd of people running in and out of the street during red lights stole the show.

via CoolPicGallary (because iPhones just don’t take pics like this)

The growing crowd waiting for a red light

I know her!

Today a friend, Adam Ace, invited me to go see The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway. Adam and I originally connected through our touring on the college market. He is a rather expressive comedian known for his red outfits and red speedo underwear. At one conference, he’d forgotten his underwear and asked if I had anything that would be just as funny. It just so happened I had a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants boxers in my suitcase (don’t ask).

Having grown up watching Pee-Wee on TV, I wasn’t sure what to expect seeing him live on Broadway. After 90 minutes of laughs, smiles, and flashback memories, Pee-Wee didn’t disappoint. The show did a great job of mixing original show elements with current themed jokes. Pee-Wee himself looked like he hadn’t aged over the last 20 years.

Though a friend, Adam got us on a sorta VIP list to meet and greet with Lance Roberts who played The King of Cartoons as well as an up close photo-op with Pee-Wee (Paul Reubens).

It was also interesting to see a lot of young kids sprinkled throughout the audience laughing along side the adults. With a new Pee-Wee movie coming out, I suspect we might be in for a bit of a Pee-Wee revival for a new generation.

After the show, we stopped to “water the plants” at a humous Charmin store dedicated to making sure NYC has an enjoyable place to go to the bathroom. I didn’t even have to go, but I did just because it was that funny of an experience. Nice work Charmin. There isn’t anything too unique for NYC.