One of my favorite conferences for the last three years has been the annual Service Management Group Forum. It's an opportunity to listen to top-notch industry experts share their wisdom about creating the ultimate customer experience, network with other business leaders, and challenge myself to make more of an impact in my own profession. As always, I walked away with some valuable lessons and actionable ideas, and of course, this year I thought, "Hey, I could get an observation paper out of that."

But my first drafts were nothing more than boring book reports. So and so spoke, and they said, "Blah," and I thought, "Wow." It wasn't keen insights worthy of an observation paper; it was more like the dry transcript from a court reporter. So I've gone back through my notes and looked for rare ah-ha's, patterns from one presentation to the next, and points of contradiction. And that's what my next couple of posts will focus on sharing.

In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite quotes from the conference:

“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence… and having it last into your absence.”
~ Frances X. Frei

"We are striving for perfection, but we'll tolerate excellence."
~ Jeff from Chick-fil-A

"Raving fans are guests who come often, pay full price, and tell their friends."
~ Jeff from Chick-fil-A

"Human beings aren't horses"
~ Daniel Pink

"Collaboration is not a natural process. You have to demand it."
~ Jim Wright CEO of Tractor Supply Company

"The purpose of a business is to get and keep customers."
~ Peter Drucker via Jack Mackey