The special guest speaker at the opening session was Judson Laipply. His message was changes is inevitable and stop trying to stop it. If you don’t change you will be swept way by it or become extinct. For the first time in our history we have five different generations living all at once and you must use different techniques to reach, work and communicate with each one. Some of the sessions dealt with modern social media such as Facebook, Blogs and Twitter –tools necessary to reach a new audience and a society embracing new methods of communication, learning and interacting. Jason Laipply has one of the most viewed videos on You Tube – The evolution of dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg His message is life may not be the party you hoped for but while we are here we might as well dance.
One of the sessions I attended was making the most of today’s media to market your club. During the session they showed how easy it is to get yourself on the internet. The presenter posted a clip on You Tube of the people attending the session.
Dr. Gray Heppner, deputy commander, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research was honored for pursuit of malaria vaccine. He was the 2009 World Service Recipient. He told the convention that every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. The cost of treatment is $7 per person but in the developing countries of the world this cost is prohibitive. Col Heppner is working on developing a vaccine to rid the world of malaria. If we can eliminate the parasite form humans the disease will be eliminated as we are the only reservoir for it. Mosquitoes only act as the vector to transmit it.
