Conferences, comedians and turbines, Oh my!

The past week has been a whirlwind of information tossed my way. On Friday, I traveled to Madison along with other TP Printing and Star News employees for our annual Wisconsin Newspaper Association conference.

The conference contained speakers from across the Midwest who talked about how we can better ourselves as publishers, editors or more plainly, journalists. I picked up many good ideas on how to improve what we do with the Tribune-Phonograph every week.

That was just the beginning of my weekend. That afternoon, I drove and met Kaitlyn in Oshkosh where we watched comedian Bert Kreischer do his standup routine with three opening comedy acts.

The amount of sheer joy and entertainment that event brought Kaitlyn and I was off the charts.

Bert was awesome. I’ll paint a picture for you. Bert is a heavier-set man in his late 40s early 50s who does every show with his shirt off. It’s the type of stunt that loosens the crowd up and simultaneously says, “We’re here to have a good time.”

He told traditional stories from his past comedy specials which can be seen on Netflix but he also told new stories and they had Kaitlyn and I giggling like schoolgirls.

After a tame-ish Saturday and Sunday, I jumped right back into the frey with multiple meetings pertaining to wind turbines on Monday. The meetings were long but there were probably over 400 attendees combined between the two.

It was cool to see local government at work during the meeting, particularly at the Farmland First meeting at the Curtiss Fire Hall. Presenters told attendees over and over that this problem can be solved at the local level and provided some semblance of proof that it has worked in Eau Claire County.

After the meeting I was a part of a conversation with State Senator Jesse James who said, “This is what it’s all about,” referring to the fact that local governments were working to make something happen.

I don’t have a dog in this fight. I live in the middle of a city and don’t particularly care if there are wind turbines in central Wisconsin or not. However, it was very cool to see that kind of turnout for a meeting where people feel that passionate about something and that they feel the need to do something about it.

It was the perfect culmination of a busy and insightful weekend.

Speeding

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