Jon Deutsch

This was the 2nd day at the US Sailing Leadership Forum with 1 more day left.  It was  really a great day of learning and connecting with people and meeting people in the sport I’ve never been able to meet in person.  I’d name some highlights, but I can’t name a highlight when just about everything from today was a highlight.

So what did I do today?

• Listened to the state of the union on big boat racing.  Learned about the rating rules as well as their strengths and weaknesses; the universal measurement rule; keel failures; and the diversity of events.
• Went to a seminar on creating sailing opportunities: Diversifying through outreach.  Learned about various demographics and opportunities to introduce new demographics to sailing and how to do it.
• Learned about building and motivating an organization.  This was incredibly relevant for both sailing and my work.  Learned about having clarity, empowerment, excitement, respect and ownership; how to be a good leader as well as a good follower.
• Found out how the rules apply to the electronic age including how some of the technology used at the America’s Cup for enforcing the rules worked and when it might or might not trickle down to other forms of sailing.
• Got to see a variety of new boats up close and on the water and how they may fit as tools to bring new sailors to the sport
• Saw Chris Love’s GoPro equipped quad copter and some pretty awesome shots of the beach front activity.

And to top it all off – there was a pretty kick ass party.

I traveled to San Diego California today to attend the US Sailing Leadership Forum.   Getting up at 4am to make my flight made for a long day.  Once in San Diego I met a friend, Karen, for lunch and we toured the USS Midway air craft carrier.

In the evening I attended the welcome reception and got to meet a lot of people whom I had heard about or even emailed with, but never met in person.

Tomorrow starts the 3-day conference.