Opening night is coming

Conference is coming up really very quickly. I looked at the calendar the other day and realized that in less than 4 weeks, I would be packing up and heading to Savannah. Gulp. Still, we're in great shape and very excited about not only our programming but everything else we have planned too. The first night event should be truly unique. Our first session is held in the Trustee Theater, which is this very cool theater about six blocks from the hotel. It was built in the late 1940s and ran movies until the early 80s, when the district fell on hard times. Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), as they've done with so many of the buildings downtown, bought it, renovated it and now uses it for lectures and shows. The people at SCAD have been truly wonderful to work with and everyone is excited to have this shared event with them. I'm also happy to have an icebreaker party outside in one of Savannah's famous squares. Whoever built Savannah decided it would be a civilized city with some city blocks reserved as open spaces. The idea was to have gardens or community spaces. It's worked so well they are in the process of converting one square they made a parking garage back into a city square instead. I can't imagine Savannah without the squares. I think it would probably be unbearably hot and muggy without some green spaces.