It was a thrill to be among 270 business-to-business marketers for two days of learning and inspiration at the first ever MarketingProfs conference. I knew for several months that we had an excellent program with high quality speakers covering the complete scope of topics, which would appeal to a range of managers from a range of company sizes and industries.

What I did not know -- but what I predicted -- was how amazing the attendees would turn out to be. Present were folks who control budgets and make decisions; folks who have both the strategic perspective and the responsibility to execute marketing programs and tactics.

Most importantly, I never saw anyone standing alone by themselves, and few people were in the hallways on their handheld devices. There was a tremendous amount of interaction, both in the formal speaker sessions and in the informal gathering places. As a result, like the best conferences these days, the "user-generated" content from attendees was as valuable as the content from featured speakers.

So, was I disappointed in anything? Only in my lack of will power. The food was fantastic, and I must have gained 10 pounds! No time to take a work out -- we are already working to put on another amazing conference for our amazing attendees in 2008.