A Mini Yearbook of my Time at STORY

A Mini Yearbook of My Time at the STORY Conference

This past week was that stretch of September when Ben Arment and I, along with the rest of our illegally talented team, leap off the grid to indulge in the fantastical world of STORY.

For two dawn to dusk days, creatives from around the country abandon their studios, garages, and basement offices to converge on Chicago with us. Together we drink in niche presenters, festival environments and that intangible sense of delight that floats in the air.

I walk away each year, uncertain of who inspires me more–is it the speakers, with their gutsy conviction and innovations? The volunteers who generously pour themselves out with massive charisma? Or the attenders, who provide almost 1,000 examples of what it looks and feels like when creativity meets flesh?

Below are a few of my takeaways–organizationally and personally–for a randomized peek into the last few days of my life. It’s a smorgasboard of the big things and little things, the famous and the dear-to-my-heart, who make this event the highlight of my year.

• My pre-event experience kicked off Tuesday as Resource Leader Becky Veydt and I made our voyage to the Windy City. Four meaningful hours of conversation later, we rolled into Park (on right) spirits on high.
• By the time my foot hit the parking garage at Park, dozens of text messages from excited members of our tribe–team leaders, volunteers, sponsors and attenders–lit up my phone in collective anticipation for our coming week.
• Chris Thomas, production lead, was already neck deep in the behind the scenes tasks it takes to get this caliber of event off the ground. He was the definition of charm and class, with a heart to connect and invest in others, even as he tackled one of the biggest areas in the building.
• Art gallery curators, James and Jesi Lusk were hard at work, prepping space for their festival guests into the early evening. They and their adorable toddler, Amelia (not pictured), are even more endearing in real life than they are in this photo.
• Then came quality time in pairs: Dinner–and the world’s largest slabs of cornbread–with our beautiful Registration Director, Rachel Moran; wee hours of the night conversation with the famously kind Katie Strandlund, and Breakfast at Snarf’s with our fantastic Surprise & Delight Director, Michaja Prendergast.
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• Then enter this woman, affectionately nicknamed Super Lady, who put the snazzy in meetups and loved on regional groups of attenders with me all weekend. She was my personal hero–ten times over.
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• Somewhere in the mix of things, I also scored some specialty burgers with the Matts from Digital Church and Roar.Pro, as well as some dangerously wise and inventive conversations with sponsors who felt like members of our team by the time they walked out the doors.
• Kristin and guys; Houston and Mark; Tim; Josh and Eva; Dave; Lory, Matt and Curtis; Barb; Craig and the In the Round guys; Bethany and JR; Jinu, Moo and crew; All our friends at Act One; Mike, Jeremy, Ginia, Dave, Alex and our other Integrity/Cook friends; Sarah and the One Thousand Hills Team; Amy; Marsha;Wayne and crew; Portable Church guys; Linda and the Clayfire peeps; my new friends at Faith Village; Stef from Visioneering; Madelyn and my whole Zondervan team (Tom, Sandra, Don, Carolyn, Kris)… you. are. all. officially. invited. to. my. house. to. hang. out. anytime. =)
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• I also managed to grab a few minutes with STORY friends from all over the midwest–Lori and Janice and our Blackhawk friends, Lorien from Columbus, Matt from Dayton, Mike, Ken and Chris from the Detroit meetup, Denise, the Moody crew, and our very own Eric Bramlett, in addition to many others.
• So many friends–from my hometown, from college, from my blog, tweeting and writing world–way too numerous to name made my STORY time “wedding-esque”. I.e. Everyone you love is in one place, and you flit around indulging in short conversations with each one of them, leaving with your heart longing for more.
• Then there was this crew, the first lady and family of STORY who have taken up serious real estate in my heart. They were compassionate voices, not to mention penny throwing, railing dangling, crayon clutching, lego-waving, hacky-sack-tossing much loved fixtures at this year’s event.  They stole our team’s hearts.
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• And finally–but not finally (I’ll be posting more I’m sure), my friend Ben, who is the visionary whose ideas set this whole experience in motion and whose courage and stamina sees it through to completion. The world will look back on what he accomplished for the faith in our generation. Guaranteed.
• This morning, Sunday, I sit and field texts from our directors and even a few volunteers and attenders who are sharing a little bit of the post-event winddown together. And it strikes me that there is no other vision I’d want to be part of more and no other people I’d rather do it with.

Please come and be part of our STORY family next year.  You can reserve your ticket HERE.