Dear IHEEP,
This was only our second date, but you really knocked it out of the ballpark. I mean, you brought in 21 state DOTs plus Canada, and Europe (I’m really sad Turkey couldn’t make it.); thirteen of them made presentations and there were nineteen vendor sponsors. Wow!
I am sorry I missed the hike to Mount Helena, the Geocaching in downtown Helena, and the golf outing on Sunday. It takes many hours and stopovers to get from Huntsville, Alabama to Helena, Montana. That shuttle that met us at the airport was nifty. And the bear claws were yummy. Wasn’t expecting that.
Glad I made it to the icebreaker at Kleffner Ranch though. The food was great and that barn was amazing. I did give the line dancing a shot but not really my thing. The instructors were very patient. Did you see that young lady, Helena? She was having a great time.
If I did the math right, you shared 43 breakout sessions, nine Bentley workshops, plus an opening roundtable over three days. Cannot forget the keynote with Greg Howell, co-founder of the Lean Construction Institute. On Wednesday you had those Tech Outings to Boeing and the MDT Snowplow Manufacturing. Then on Thursday you had a closing roundtable and an outing to Gates of the Mountain. Phew! That was a lot of stuff packed into a week. Mike Dyrdahl and his team at the Montana DOT did a fantastic job setting everything up. From my point of view the whole conference was a success.
All I can say is, you know how to show a lady a great time. Cannot wait to see you in Covington, Kentucky.
About IHEEP
Once a year IHEEP delegates gather at the home state of the organization’s President. The 2016 IHEEP conference was held in Helena, Montana September 11-15. Presiding President Michael Dyrdahl and his committee hosted over 200 delegates and vendor sponsors from five districts including the United States, Canada, Poland, and Croatia.
Most of you are familiar with IHEEP but for everyone else, IHEEP is the International Highway Engineering Exchange Program. It began in 1959 as “an international organization that promotes advances in transportation engineering through the exchange of knowledge and information technology.”