Minnesota & Canada - Sept 09

The First Thirty by Jillip Naysinthe Paxson (and expanded version, The Silhouette Man) tell the story of a person's efforts to make a difference and the lessons learned along the way.  Greg is the real-life person upon whom the books are based.  In September 2009, he traveled to Minnesota and Canada for 4 days of events -- and adventures along the way.  This part of the site has photos, details and links regarding his trip.

Italicized notes are personal notes from Greg from his trip journal.

In advance of the trip, Greg set some goals. They included: (1) to use every single minute of the trip (2) to still find time to respond, when needed, to every email and call received, without excuse -- and send out thank you notes along the way (3) to have a lot of fun and learn from the people met along the way, (4) to treat each person I meet - regardless of who they are or what they do -- the same way, and (5) to leave each community visited a little better than I found it

Arrive in Minnesota, check into hotel, look out the window, see Mall of America, wander over there. Definitely no ordinary mall. More like, an extraordinary mall! Has shops, restaurants, an amusement park...and a giant aquarium. Make plans to return on Thursday.

Meet up with new friends at Ethiopian restaurant.

Attend a special hearing presided over by Minnesota's state Supreme Court.

The hearing took place at William Mitchell College of Law. It was a unique chance for the law school students to hear a state Supreme Court case, meet the Justices, ask them questions, and to spend time with their classmates.

Following the hearing, there was a reception attended by most of the Justices -- many of whom stuck around for more than an hour to answer more questions from the students.

It was very cool to see law students so interested in learning -- and Justices so willing to give their time!

I also appreciate how everyone I met allowed me to blend in -- making a visitor who always dreamt of becoming a lawyer feel at home on their campus :)

Went out with a friend for more food. It seemed like such a waste to have a piano there but nobody trying to play it....

The luncheon was a product of their Customer Service Action Council (CSAC) and Customer Service Partnership Initiative effort -- which seeks to "involve a cross-section of businesses and organizations operating at MSP in developing a shared customer service vision for MSP."

Greg attended the lunch and served as its guest speaker.

It was genuinely an eye-opening honor to get to know a group of people who are so sincerely trying their best to improve our customer service experience while also continuing to try to keep the skies safe for those of us who fly.

At the MSP airport, you can pick up a copy of The Silhouette Man at Simply Books -- a great bookstore in the heart of the airport

After the event at the airport, Greg returned to the Mall -- where he headed down to the Underwater Adventures Aquarium.

After a tutorial where one of UWA's experts taught him all kinds of things about fish and sharks (and the proper way to snorkel with them), they spent about 15 or 20 minutes snorkeling in Rainbow Reef -- where you can observe over 65 types of colorful and interesting tropical reef fish. There are also stingrays and baby sharks swimming around under water.

Afterward, he took a tour through The Tunnel. As its notes on their website, the Aquarium "features a 300 foot-long curved glass tunnel 14 feet below the surface, complete with a moving walkway that simulates a SCUBA diving adventure - but without getting wet."

It was truly surreal. A chance for you (and kids, if you have them like this father, left) to be 'under water' with the sharks and turtles and fish -- while feeling comfortable and safe and dry :)

To read about other Leaps, visit www.TakingLeaps.com

Returned to the MSP Airport -- wandering through its restaurants and shops and concourses and thinking about all the memorable experiences there. Then headed to the gate for the flight to Canada.

At the end of a fun but very long day, he arrived (left) at the airport in Thunder Bay... home of one of his favorite hotels anywhere - Travelodge Hotel Airlane. It was so great to be back and see my friends who work there!

The trip marked the fourth year in a row that he had been invited to speak at events in Thunder Bay. To see pictures from the 2008 trip, click here

A couple hours later, Greg woke up bright and early to send out thank you notes to people he met at the event in Minnesota and to finish preparing for his speeches in Canada.

Don't actually use notes when I speak, but I scribble things (left) down in the days leading up to the speech and then read them over.

Then, he attended the LORNA Conference - a day-long conference for nurses in Canada.


Another event that really was an honor to be part of.   Room full of people who help so many others every day.

After breakfast and coffee, attendees at the Conference heard from a guest speaker discussing pediatric anesthesiology.

Afterward, attendees had a chance to walk around and check out the different exhibitors' booths.

Greg was asked to give a 90 minute speech during the morning session. He used that time to share several stories with the attendees.

After the speech, the attendees had a chance to get lunch and check out more exhibitors' booths.

Some also used the time to get copies of The Silhouette Man and The First Thirty.

On Friday afternoon, Greg gave the second of two 90 minute speeches at the LORNA Conference. The second 'speech' was an interactive session where Greg and the attendees discussed how to connect the dots between the stories he told during the first session with the inspiring work they do every day.

If you cut your finger and need a bandage, a conference for nurses is a good place to be :)

After the conference, went with some attendees to a local establishment...

...then went to cheer on some new friends during their baseball game

After the game, Greg hosted a dinner for 20 people who did not know each other.

The dinner took place at Kelsey's - a restaurant in Thunder Bay with great service and a ton of food options.

For Greg, hosting brunches and dinners for complete strangers is a fun tradition that has occurred hundreds of times in cities around the world.

For examples, go to www.ShakingUpAmerica.com, click Enter Here

After dinner, he accepted an invitation to go to a charity benefit with some new friends.

In Thunder Bay, these benefits are very common and popular -- a place where the community comes together to support its neighbors.  The benefits are usually very casual in terms of dress - and the crowds can range from 20s to 80s at the very same event.  It is a very cool experience.

After the benefit, Greg joined some friends at a popular local bar.

Greg took part in a photo shoot at the Thunder Bay Public Library for an upcoming READ poster. The READ Campaign promotes literacy to young (and not-so-young) people in a community - and encourages them to visit their local library. For the photo shoot, Greg got to pick a stack of his favorite books to pose with.

After the photo shoot, wandered over to the 'stacks' to see which book was next to The First Thirty. It turned out to be The Road Less Traveled. No kidding :)

Greg and a friend met for lunch at Thunder Bay's famous Hoito restaurant.

A quick stop for a local tradition: touch your toe in Lake Superior

In the afternoon, in conjunction with National Grandparents Day, he spoke at a special event at a community for seniors in Thunder Bay.

The residents were really nice -- and funny. One of the residents said she'd begun reading The Silhouette Man and insisted on seeing whether I really wear mismatched socks :)

Afterward, he accepted an invite to meet up with some MBA students at a local bar.

Went to campfire/barbeque at someone's home with some new friends. Most of the people at the barbeque worked in the airline industry -- a fun way for me to connect the dots between the two halves of this trip.

In the morning, a friend stopped by the highly-recommended Travelodge Hotel Airline on her way to work to meet up with Greg for breakfast in the equally highly-recommended hotel restaurant.

I would like to take this time to apologize to the servers who were nervous about me always showing up barefoot when I came and got food :)

After sending out thank you notes to everyone he met at the LORNA Conference, Greg headed to Kakabeka Falls with some friends -- a beautiful set of waterfalls in the Thunder Bay area.

Sunday was National Grandparents Day. So, it was only fitting to meet a grandparent and grandchild experiencing the day together.

To learn about the Greatest Grandma who ever lived, visit www.WorldsGreatestGrandma.com

Sunday - 3 pm

During the trip, another chapter of The First Thirty Elevator Project  was implemented. To learn about this Project, how it started, what it has turned into, and how you could be part of it, go to www.TheFirstThirty.com and click Elevator Project.

Greg's trip to Minnesota and Canada provided him a chance to see old friends and meet all kinds of new ones. Here are pictures of some of the (many!) additional memorable people and places who crossed his path during the trip...

On each trip, Greg tries to find a memorable or ironic sign or two...

One of his favorite things to do on a trip is 'connect dots'. On this trip, one example involved the event at the MSP airport. He brought a number of guests to the event -- giving them a chance to meet, and learn from, the people who work at the airport.

Tim, Minnesota: "I‘ve gotten a lot of nice comments about Greg's presentation. And I couldn’t agree with him more about the importance of each encounter. Good service feeds on itself and eventually starts to permeate the whole community. I think we do a good job with our customers, but I know there is a lot more we can be doing, and it is our goal to constantly get better...I think we are making some headway. Having Greg share his story with us was very helpful in that effort..."

James, Canada: "I enjoyed Greg's talks and found relevance to nursing...I hope it will help us all remember  to look at things from a different angle -- the patient's instead of our own. The other thing I took away...is to become more aware of those around me that I have never taken the time to get to know...Maybe it's time to break the ice."
 
 

Stay tuned.

To purchase The Silhouette Man in person, visit Simply Books in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

To check out The First Thirty or The Silhouette Man in Thunder Bay, visit Thunder Bay Public Library

To purchase copies of The First Thirty or The Silhouette Man (or companion workbook A Place To Sit) online, visit www.TheSilhouetteMan.com and click Cart

To order copies of the posters, visit www.GregForbes.com, click Enter Site, click Posters

For bulk orders of any of the titles, email Books@IdeaListEnterprises.com

To return to the website, visit www.GregForbes.com

The book: www.TheFirstThirty.com

The expanded version of the book: www.TheSilhouetteMan.com

The art site: www.MySleeplessNights.com

To reach us by email: GregsUpdate@Gmail.com

To reach Greg on Facebook, send a friend link to "Greg Forbes Siegman"

To ask about booking an event, email Events@GregForbes.com

Thanks to everyone in Minnesota and Canada who made the trip such a memorable one. It was a busy 4 days, but a lot of fun!