SWE Region Conference (Palm Springs!)

Back at the beginning of March I took a trip over to Palm Springs, California, for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Sonora Region Conference and Career Fair. You see, as the Region Governor, my attendance is required at these conferences and I guess I just can't complain about them being in places like Orlando, Palm Springs, etc. (Have I mentioned yet that next year's is in HAWAII!!!!????)

Ahem, back to this post...

I know from experience, it takes a LOT of work to plan a SWE Region Conference. I led the planning efforts for the 2009 conference here in Albuquerque. This time around it was no different. I was on conference calls at least weekly, I wrote and responded to a zillion emails, and it was tough. And about five days before the conference, I came down with a heinous case of bronchitis. As in I couldn't even talk. When I finally got my voice back, I couldn't speak a whole sentence without coughing. It sucked...

But I went anyway.

It was 80 degrees and my room overlooked the gorgeous pool:
I stayed inside and rested.

I did manage to make it to the street-fair thingy on Thursday night and got this sweet hand-painted "choo choo" wall hanging for Carter (click on it to see it better - WAY cool - and thanks to Jeannette for shipping it to Albuquerque for me!):
The street fair was REALLY weird. THE most random vendors (lots of fudge for some reason?!). Here's a street shot:
On both legs of my flight to CA, I sat by Canadian women. They were headed to Palm Springs for 6 months (each of them - weird, eh?). I was baffled that so many Canadians would "winter" in Palm Springs. And so I just HAD to snap a picture of this sign:
Even though I was beat, I had some tasty Mexican food with some of my favorite SWE pals. Jeannette (I know, the photo is dark - she told me if I posted the other one she would kill me...):
Jenn and George (are they cute or what?!? Can't wait until their wedding in May 2012!):
Keli and Lisa:
Most photos of me include me blowing my nose or coughing. On two different occasions, SWE pals brought me new boxes of tissues (sometimes being Governor has its perks...):
On the Friday, I took a tour of the Nestle water bottling facility. They wouldn't let us take photos (it was SO cool!), but I snapped a couple pics of the many, many windmills on the ride back:
Palm Springs is about 2000' lower than Albuquerque in elevation, so the climate was pretty similar to here.
Another Governor made it out to the conference. Colleen (on the right) and I just so happened to be wearing the same SWE shirt. Ha!
I made it through most of the event without dying, but it was a stretch to stand at the podium at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even during my water treatment presentation without losing a lung. But I did. Even got all dressed up for dinner (which, I must say, the keynote speaker was AMAZINGLY inspirational! One of the oldest SWE presidents gave an interview - WOW!).

There were lots of awards and I did a lot of smiling for the camera. Won't show them all, but a couple of my favorites. First up, the "Sonora History Awards." These are scrapbooking awards and my neighbor, Kristin, does the two pages up for my local SWE section. She's taken home top prize for Central New Mexico for two years running! Here's the CNM President, Elizabeth, with the winning entry:
Winning collegiate entry - Cal Poly:
Another really great SWE pal - my Secretary (who takes AMAZING meeting minutes!), Stephanie:
And I'll end with this one - Super Lisa - she's my "Fun Director" for the Sonora Region (unofficial title, of course):
All in all, I had a GREAT time despite the bronchitis trying to do me in. We had over 300 attendees and I'm pretty sure EVERYONE had a great time! Another thanks to Jenn and Lisa for all of their hard work at planning the conference! Let's do it again next year...in Hawaii!!!!!
~kerrie