it’s been a fun week. i have no voice left because of all the amazing conversations that have taken place over the last few days and if i tried to list and link to every person i met and adored it would be, well, impossible.

my free time has been spent keeping up the catalyst backstage blog and tonight i added a few new videos. in case you haven’t been following it, you can see some interviews we did with steven furtick, perry noble, tony morgan, tim stevens, seth godin, pete wilson, jon acuff, dino rizzo, bongos breaking, and auto-flushing urinals.

you can also catch up on people’s thoughts about the sessions, their tweets, and blogs that have been rolling in automatically.

so drop over to the place i’ve called home this week and say hi.

this has probably been one of the most incredible weeks of my life (and i really didn’t even get to attend the sessions). there are so many wonderful and lovely people doing so many wonderful and lovely things. it was an honor to meet you all…

i know, i know…blah blah blah catalyst, blah blah.  is anne ever going to write on her blog again?

yes!

i will still be tracking the events of catalyst at the backstage site, but am saving this dear blog for some more personal reflections, should i have any along the way.

i noticed the comments have slowed down died on here lately and i’m sorry for not inviting more conversation.

ask my husband and he will tell you the amount of time i have poured over every outfit, every accessory, every scent of deodorant i may wear as i have planned for catalyst. 

this opportunity that i have is like an IV push of those most influential in leadership (if you define influence as speaking to a large group of people in some medium or another).

everyone-all-at-once-wham!

me?

i am just a newbie author with a blog with flowers meeting these pastors, authors, and speakers for the very first time. 

it makes me nervous.

and i became obsessed with making the best first impression.

one author in particular, who i was extremely nervous and excited to meet, is william paul young, who wrote the shack (which as irony would have it, on amazon, our books are paired together for a great bargain!) 

now, in full disclosure, i have not actually read the shack yet. 

but i will. 

and in the mean time, i have highly regarded and admired mr. young’s ability to start discussion.  it’s nothing short of amazing.

tonight, as i pulled into the hotel (disheveled, sweaty, rained upon, and gross)…clothes over my arm, earrings falling out of my ear, as i attempted to press the elevator button with my elbow, a voice behind me says,

“i’ll get it.”

together, we hop on the elevator, he asks me what floor.

“two, please.”

i ask him if he is here for catalyst.  he says yes.

“my name is paul.”

“i’m anne jackson.  i’m hosting catalyst backstage.”

“oh,” he says.  “i’m the author of the book, the shack,” he continues, unassumingly.

he leans over to give me a hug (me - disheveled, sweaty, rained upon, and gross) and we talk about some of the upcoming events on our calendars. he graciously fills me in on his schedule.

we arrive at floor two, and i head to my room.

(disheveled, sweaty, rained upon, and gross).

my first catalyst first impression. it wasn’t what i had in mind.

but it was beautiful.

i’ve posted a couple of videos from the road over at catalystbackstage.com…you must see the massive car i am driving.  watch out, ATL! :)

hop on over and check ‘em out!

back to I-24…almost to 75!

i am a big fan of google alerts, but let’s face it — they aren’t always perfect.  and since i am officially a “twitter diva,” i really do want to know when someone is talking to me on twitter so i can respond if needed.

twitter replies are great for that, but only if that person starts their tweet with @flowerdust.

welcome to search.twitter.com.

let’s explore how it works:

this link will show you who is saying what about “flowerdust,”  i also have searches set up for mad church disease, and catalyst backstage at the moment, for example.

what’s great is there is an RSS feed for your unique searches…so now anytime someone says “flowerdust,” “mad church disease,” or “catalyst backstage” in their tweet, it comes straight to my google reader!

read some other twitter tips here and from my friend michael hyatt here.

and i start my crazy journey to catalyst tomorrow, so follow me on twitter here to get all the updates along the way.

i’m going to be testing out the video feed on catalyst backstage tonight at 8 pm cst.  i’ve done a video cast before with los and one with crystal, and even a fun pre-recorded ice cream trip, but never have done a broadcast solo.  i think it might be kind of weird. but fun?  i mean just me, alone, talking to you guys on a screen?

i’m half tempted to do it somewhere public so people at least think i’m a little crazy. :)

anyway, 8 pm CST - here at CatalystBackstage.com - for 15 minutes or so, no agenda, just Q&A and looking forward to hanging out with you guys.

you in?

Ok. Not really. But….

CatalystBackstage.com is LIVE!

Now, we realize there isn’t a ton of content on it — YET — but you should see what we have up our sleeves.

Go ahead and hop on, test the comments out, chat a bit, and see what others are saying about Catalyst 08! You know you wanna…

Big thanks to Chris Ediger at Giant Impact and Ben Arment, and all the people at Catalyst for making this happen.

Here is a little blog widget for you to use to spread the word! Just copy and paste the text into your sidebar and viola!

<a href="http://www.catalystbackstage.com" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outbound/www.catalystbackstage.com');"><img src="http://flowerdust.net/images/catalyst-backstage-anne-jackson.jpg" alt="CATALYST BACKSTAGE" /></a>

There will be a steady stream of videos and blogs going up Tuesday as I road trip down…We are going to try and spread the word about the site as much as possible on Wednesday…so…I hope you all will take a moment to blog about it then (or now…or both!!)

Happy Weekend! Next week is gonna rock!