This year's conference was jam-packed with great moments. We tried to capture as many of them as possible in our daily conference blog. Here's a taste:
I Left My Heart in San Francisco
The hundreds of business officers who descended on The Fairmont Hotel today came from many different backgrounds, states, schools, and situations—but they all have one thing in common: they LOVE The Fairmont Hotel. Completed in 1907, the hotel has housed everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Bill Clinton, and its magnificent Venetian Room (site of NBOA's Vendor Hall and Reception) was where Tony Bennett first crooned "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Participants loved exploring the extraordinary nooks and crannies of this elegant place—from the rows of photographs of famous visitors to the incredible Tonga Room, which provides musical entertainment in its mid-restaurant pool (one business officer said that she was afraid the band, which sang exuberantly to diners from a moving boat, might capsize). A good number of the hotel's 500-plus rooms were taken up by NBOA Symposium participants, all of whom seem delighted to be here, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. Said Tameeka Aviles of TIAA-CREF, "When I see a blue NBOA lanyard around someone's neck, I smile—I just know that person's going to be friendly. I love meeting all these new people."