Another fun and successful NCBC conference, thank you Chicago! This was my 5th NCBC conference and I was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the NCBC Scholarship recipients. While some courts can fully fund all their conference attendees, there are some courts that are only able to fund a portion of the conference and the travel costs associated with attending. The NCBC Scholarship program is wonderful in that it helps ease the financial burden and allows some of us to attend when money is tight. So, a big thank you to NCBC too! It’s always great fun to meet up with old friends and make new ones but I always enjoy spending time with my fellow co-workers and getting to know them outside the office. From the Welcome Reception at The Gwen to dinner and fireworks at Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier, there was plenty of opportunity to connect with everyone.
As always, this year’s conference had a great selection of breakout sessions and the plenary sessions were both fun and informative. The Second City Works plenary on Tuesday morning had us all laughing and learning (not to mention silently hoping we weren’t called upon!). Randy Fox on Thursday morning was inspirational and brought to light the importance of clear communication in not just our work lives but in our everyday lives and everyone we interact with. A couple of the Breakout Sessions that stood out for me were the “Dark Web/Cyber Crime” and “Who’s Behind the Curtain.” While we all know that the Dark Web is out there, it was somewhat eye opening to hear exactly how much of the web consists of the deep and dark web. “Who’s Behind the Curtain” was very interesting. It was mind-boggling the number of committees (and each with their own acronym!) and to learn what is involved in all the decision making and funding that affects each of us.
I enjoy the cities that the conferences are held almost as much as I enjoy the conference and Chicago was no different. I have put it on my list of places I would like to return to and explore more. I enjoyed some deep-dish pizza, saw “The Bean” and I was able to squeeze in one of the architectural tours on Thursday before my flight home. That was well worth it. There are certainly a lot of tall buildings in Chicago, not to mention diverse and to view them all from the Chicago River was spectacular.
Great job, Chicago. Thank you again for a fun, informative and entertaining conference. And thank you to my court for allowing me to attend. I hope there are many more in my future.
As always, this year’s conference had a great selection of breakout sessions and the plenary sessions were both fun and informative. The Second City Works plenary on Tuesday morning had us all laughing and learning (not to mention silently hoping we weren’t called upon!). Randy Fox on Thursday morning was inspirational and brought to light the importance of clear communication in not just our work lives but in our everyday lives and everyone we interact with. A couple of the Breakout Sessions that stood out for me were the “Dark Web/Cyber Crime” and “Who’s Behind the Curtain.” While we all know that the Dark Web is out there, it was somewhat eye opening to hear exactly how much of the web consists of the deep and dark web. “Who’s Behind the Curtain” was very interesting. It was mind-boggling the number of committees (and each with their own acronym!) and to learn what is involved in all the decision making and funding that affects each of us.
I enjoy the cities that the conferences are held almost as much as I enjoy the conference and Chicago was no different. I have put it on my list of places I would like to return to and explore more. I enjoyed some deep-dish pizza, saw “The Bean” and I was able to squeeze in one of the architectural tours on Thursday before my flight home. That was well worth it. There are certainly a lot of tall buildings in Chicago, not to mention diverse and to view them all from the Chicago River was spectacular.
Great job, Chicago. Thank you again for a fun, informative and entertaining conference. And thank you to my court for allowing me to attend. I hope there are many more in my future.