I Heart Rick Steves!

On Sunday, I got to see Rick Steves in person. Wow! What a great experience! Unfortunately for me, there are quite a number of Rick Steves fans...there were a few hundred fanpeople packed into the second floor of Bookpeople in Austin, Texas. Rick played it all cool, making jokes and smalltalk before the presentation got started.

While he was scheduled to start speaking at 1, you could tell he saw the audience was eager and there wasn't a place for other people coming in to sit (although they conveniently just stood in front of you and blocked people's view. I know it's probably the stun of seeing a travel icon and hero right there...but come on, move your ass!). So, he started early at 12:45. Rocking!

I have a feeling that Rick doesn't suffer from speaking fatigue. There are some presenters who jump right into auto-pilot and repeat the same scoop, word for word, they've been hawking for some time. I know I used to struggle with that as a trainer and try to keep each experience fresh and nuanced. It's really, really tough and made more difficult by the expectations of the audience.



The presentation moved from learning about how Rick got started in the travel guide and tour business, amazing information about this trip to Iran (coming to a PBS station near you), how Americans are perceived by other countries, and how he views travelers as ambassadors representing their own country. This last bit struck home, since during our 2006 trip to Germany we really struggled when talking about where we were from: the last place you want to be from is Texas. It inspired "George Bush this, George Bush that" but our thin American skin couldn't see past that they weren't dissing Texas or dissing us, they were simply giving their political point of view and we were making the assumptions.



I did not get a book signed or shake his hand, there were MOBS of people. He did graciously speak for about 2 1/2 hours and reiterates why he's a hero of mine - he chose to be entrepreneurial about something he's passionate about and truly sees the whole picture. And if he's got missing pieces in that puzzle, fine, he's got missing pieces. That's a part of the deal.

My next task in preparing for our trip (which is just over a week away) is to rip up my travel guides (mostly Rick Steves books) and take the cities that we're visiting with me. Exciting!

Tschüß!