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My Tenth In-Person Gathering with My Tribe
This is an easy blog for me to write each year, but also a difficult one.
I attended my first RendezVous of the Purposeful Planning Institute in 2014, as I was just discovering the world in which I am now fully immersed.
I vowed then to never miss this annual experience and I’ve been true to my word.
If you add in the two RendeZooms we did in 2020 and 2021, I’m now on a twelve-year streak.
If you’re wondering why this is difficult to write, it’s simply the challenge of converting a lived and felt experience into words.
But I think I’m above average at that, so I’ll give it my best shot.
Setting My Intention Going In
As I was getting ready for Monday’s opening reception, I decided to set an intention for the next few days.
This year, I was just going to try to “soak it all in”.
Over the years, I’ve played a variety of roles for this organization in preparation for this annual extravaganza, but I only had one small part to worry about, so just soaking everything in seemed like a good idea.
There was, as usual, a whole heck of a lot to soak in, and my proverbial sponge got quite heavy.
By the time Thursday rolled around, I was ready for a respite, if only to try to digest everything I took in.
It’s Not Like Any Other Conference
One of my favourite things to do during RendezVous is to find first-time attendees and ask them what their experience has been like.
Almost all remark that they’ve never been part of such a welcoming group of people, which is usually when I then share that by the end of the first day of my initial attendance, I told myself that if I could only attend one conference a year, it would be this one.
Someone noted that it wasn’t really a conference, it’s more of an experience, and I guess that’s a nice way to phrase it.
All Working Toward the Same Goal
There’s something about finding one’s “tribe”, and just coming together to share how we’re working our way through the many challenges we face in our work with families.
What we all have in common is that we’ve dedicated our careers to helping families plan for the transition of their businesses or wealth from one generation to the next.
While many professionals do work in this space, the vast majority do so in very technical specialty fields like law, accounting, banking and wealth management.
What brings the PPI community together is the work in what I sometimes call the “family circle”.
There’s a certain amount of “a calling” or vocation to the way many of us approach our work.
Still Feels Like a Niche
Because it’s a calling, people have very strong feelings about it, and when like-minded and “like-called” people meet, there’s a special attraction.
Many of us feel a bit lonely over the other 51 weeks of the year, so it’s a wonderful change to just be with and interact with others who are going through a similar life and career experience.
We all also know that there is a huge need out there from families who could use support with their challenges.
And as I like to put it, even though there is a huge need, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a corresponding huge demand for our services.
The result is that we can all use each other’s support in trying to translate that need into demand for our services.
Who We Are Versus What We Do
We’re getting to the end here and I still haven’t shared any of the great content I picked up; fear not, many upcoming posts will dig into that.
Likewise, the entire RendezVous is more about who we are together and how we are together, and who we are becoming together, than about what we do.
It was, once again, an enriching experience because of the great folks I’ve met there over the years.
The fact that I got to go up on stage wearing my Fred Flintstone shirt again (as MC of the FRED Talks session) was just a bonus.
The laughs I shared over Thursday’s “family dinner” with KH and AK were a wonderful way to cap off the week.
See you there again next year.
