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Improbable Connections in Vegas
By Woody Huizenga | August 14, 2008
People often ask me about my surname—usually whether I’m related to the wealthy former owner of the Miami Dolphins. And I joke about how my long-lost Uncle Wayne won’t return my phone calls.
Huizenga is not as uncommon a name as you might expect, so when a woman I met at Meeting Professionals International’s World Education Congress in Las Vegas began a conversation with “I used to date a guy with that last name,” I didn’t think I was about to add another small-world story to my repertoire.
(It turns out she had dated my cousin and even attended a family wedding, although we didn’t meet—at least not in a way that was at all memorable for either of us—at that time.)
Small-world stories are fun, but they don’t actually tell us much, other than that improbable things do happen. And creating spaces in which improbable connections can be made is what well-organized conferences are all about.
Topics: Meeting Professionals International, The Conference Publishers |