Reflections on the IASH SF Conference

Its a couple of days since the IASH San Francisco Conference and I have had the opportunity to reflect on the event. The conference was over 3 days and there were an amazing number of NLPers who had been in the field for decades. I mention "NLPers" rather than "NLP Trainers" as most folks were focussed on using the skills in specific contexts rather than "teaching" NLP courses...

That having said Steve Andreas gave an absolutely excellent 3 hour slot on Grief and Forgiveness and I can't remember when I have heard such a skilled presentation that was so precise.
I also had the opportunity to interview a stack of great people including Charles Faulkner, Don Blackerby, Richard Gray and Tim Hollbom. I also got to meet Frank Bourke who has over 3 decades of NLP experience and is one of the smartest and funniest people I have come across. Frank is also involved in spearheading the recognition project for NLP.

As well as the formal seminar events there was plenty of opportunity to socialise and one especially memorable evening at a Japanese restaurant still makes mr smile. I didn't really know what to expect from the IASH event and especially how my own presentations would go down and didn't "get" what Steve Andreas meant when he commented "SRO for your your presentation eh?" Later when I aked him I realised that this meant "Standing room only" and that 10 people had to be turned away, including himself!

Many who know me will be aware that I have for some time lamented what I consider to be a descent for NLP more into entertainment that in developing skills. The IASH conference was a refreshing reminder that there are some highly skilled NLPers out there from all schools of NLP and its rare in my experience to see so many people focussed on using these skills in a manner that really helps people on a greater scale. It was also unusual to find so many people who had experience of learning NLP from the 1970s and who had continued to develop their own capabilities in so many specific contexts, including fields of education, health and addictions. I have been invited to the 2010 event and certainly will be keeping that slot in my diary!