My brain, heart and stomach are all full.  The first day of the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) has been inspiring, challenging and more.  At 8am we arrived at Willow Creek Community Church to register with 7000 other delegates.  This 'live' site where the speakers appear in person is supplemented by (I think) 400 other sites around North America, where another 90,000 or so delegates also attend via satellite simulcast. On this fact alone the GLS is an amazingly innovative conference.

The Willow Creek Auditorium is a 7000 seat state of the art theatre with three tiers of seating, a huge stage and two massive high definition LED screens (like you see at the footy, only better) on either side.  It is very, very big and very, very impressive.  We started dead on 9am with a 7 or so minute video that reinforced the connectedness of the world and our part in it, immediately after which Bill Hybels, the Senior and Founding Pastor of Willow Creek spoke for the first session. The sessions kept on rolling on from there, interspersed with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.  Speakers, in order, were Condoleezza Rice (former Secretary of State), Jim Collins(Business Consultant and Author), Mark Keilburger and Sheryl WuDann (Social Entrepreneurs) and finally Craig Groeschel (Pastor of Lifechurch.tv). It was a stellar line up.

I want to give you one or two quotes from each session to whet your appetite:

• Everyone wins when a leader gets better. (Bill Hybels)
• The middle stages of vision implementation, not the beginning or the end, is when
  the vision is most vulnerable.  (Bill Hybels)
• If every life is worthy, then every life is capable of greatness. (Condoleezza
  Rice)
• Today's headlines and tomorrow's judgement are rarely the same. (Condoleezza Rice)
• The only mistakes you learn from are the ones you survive. (Jim Collins)
• Greatness is not an accident of circumstances.  It is the function of discipline. (Jim Collins)
• In the 18th century, 80 thousand slaves were transported per year.  In the 21st century, 800 thousand people per year are trafficked.  (Mark Keilburger)
• We don't delegate tasks.  We delegate authority.  Delegating authority creates leaders.  Delegating tasks creates followers. (Craig Groeschel)
• If you are not dead, you are not done. (Craig Groeschel)

I have pages of notes that I will wade through but suffice to say I have received a whole lot of world class leadership input.  Whether it translates into world class leadership output is largely up to me!

Day One of the summit finished up a little after 5, the party of 12 leaders I am traveling with experienced a very impressive interactive journey that tells the story of a child supported by Compassion.  We then had the privilege of sharing dinner with Wes Stafford and other senior leaders from Compassion International.  Wow.

So Day One is over and Day Two awaits.  I feel blessed - blessed to be here, and even more, blessed to lead in such a life giving context that Newlife offers.  My mind is sparking with all sorts of ideas.  God has been and is good to me!

Check out Stu's thoughts on GLS Day 2 on his blog: What Matters

Stu Cameron
Newlife Uniting Church
Gold Coast