Catching up with correspondence, planning Speechwriters Conference

First order of fog-clearing: Thank you, Hal Gordon for doing a magnificent job filling in for me while I rode plains, trains, buses and bikes across China for three weeks. One stop at an Internet café in LiJiang told me all was right—and had never been more right—with this blog.

Many impressions to share regarding China, but as I patiently wait for them to congeal into words—my how-was-China spiel thus far is limited to a wide-eyed, "BIG"—I'd like to invite all readers of this blog to send me proposals for sessions for the 2006 Speechwriter's Conference, to be held in February in D.C.

I've got lots on the conference docket already, but room for a few more and a deadline that looms. I'll be open to session ideas this week and next. Just e-mail me a couple of paragraphs about what you'll teach your colleagues and how your experience qualifies you to teach it and we'll take it from there.

Back at you soon ….