I'm back from the Speechwriters Conference, and too tired from last week and too busy this week to offer elaborate commentary beyond what's running today on Ragan.com.

But to explain the overall effect this conference had on me, I can do no better than to share the e-mail that I sent late Friday afternoon to Ragan's genius conference organizer Cristin Clifford and the rest of the crew that we had in D.C.

I told them that for me "the conference is an annual reminder that we do more than just make hot air and money with all our writing and conferences. We really help people deal, and they really appreciate it."

Lest you think such smarmy sentiment is all I feel, I also enjoy the conference because my emcee role gets me as close as ever to Frank Sinatra.

As conference attender and Shades regular Vincent Rhodes put so suavely in a comment to my last post, "Even with drink in hand, David is a driving force at the conference."

Oh, pshaw.

Anyway: I'd love to hear from peeps who attended the conference—what were your favorite parts? And: Did I remind you, too, of the Chairman of the Board?