I went there expecting something different. The program promised Las Vegas, Stefan Swanepoel, “TED like” talks, and Inside the Actor Studios interviews. Hell, you had me at Vegas.
First things first, the event was held at The Ravella Hotel, which used to be a Ritz Carlton, at Lake Las Vegas. Which is a $50 to $60 dollar cab ride around 25 minutes from the strip. The event started at 6PM (which meant you had to eat dinner prior) with a introduction from Stefan and a 90 minute, 160 slide deck, from Darren Hardy (the publisher of Success Magazine). I heard mostly positive reviews of Darren’s talk but felt sorry for people who flew in from the East Coast. When the speech was over we were treated to a cash bar (Stefan felt is was important for the event not to be “commercialized”).
The next day started at 8am (now I felt sorry for West Coasters like myself) with a keynote from Stefan. I have to say I’m a big fan of Stefan. He truly cares about the industry. I always enjoy his Trend reports, and even read his book, Surviving your Serengeti“. I love his speaking style and enjoyed his keynote. He has a brilliant way of breaking down complicated concepts. I playfully tweeted that Stefan would make a perfect Bond Villain. With his accent, his penchant for talking about high tech devices, all his was missing was an ugly scar and a henchman to take over the world!
A couple highlights of the event were Stefan’s “Inside The Actor’s Studio” interviews. His first, and in my opinion the best, was an interview with Ron Peltier of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. The interview was very personal with pictures of him when he was younger and his family. It felt like you had a few round of drinks with Ron. At some points during the interview Ron even got a little emotional.
Like the real “TED talks” they were hit and miss. I enjoyed Rob Hahn’s “Black Swans or Real Estate” presentation, Jim Marks brought some energy to the stage but my favorite was from Curt Beardsley, when he started with a reading from a Ray Bradbury book and somehow tied it all together with real estate.
The panels were also mixed with some good feedback and stuff we had heard before.
By far the weakest part of the event was the emcee. While I’m sure the women is a nice person in real life, she was awful. To me a good emcee should be likable, funny, keep the audience engaged, and keep things rolling. Sadly, that person was not on stage, I saw a lot of eye rolling from the audience members.
Stefan wrapped up the event with an interview of Logan Kugler, a self described “space entrepreneur”. Since I’m a bit of a space geek I just loved it. A great mix of youth, enthusiasm, and inspiration.
So I expected something different from the T3 Summit and I got it. It being Stefan’s first event of this type, they still have some rough edges to work out. But overall I thought the event was good. I think this type of inspirational, deeper thinking type event has a great niche. With Stefan’s leadership I look forward to their next iteration.
