It was a Thursday evening. The Deadline for INTED paper is up in a few hours. John has generously offered to fly me to Madrid. I am all excited, but feeling badly about being a “mouch”. I get 3 emails within 10 minutes.

One is from John and Tracey inviting me to help edit the documents and beginning to write the second document.

The second one is telling me that my funding is not going to go through.

The third one is from SMART asking me to speak at a combined conference, CIO Congress and Education Congress. These will be the top Chief Information Officers and then the top Superintendents from the US.

It is funny how coincidences happen. On one hand, it is an opportunity to reach a larger audience and I am having a hard time to find the resources to go to Madrid. On the other hand, I feel like I am letting John and Tracey down. I am in, then Im out, then I’m in and now I am out.

John and Tracey were most generous, looking at the big picture. This will allow the message of Philio-engineering in general and One Million Lights specifically get to a larger audience. The plan was hatched for me to speak to the North American Audience while John and Tracey speak to a world-wide audience in Madrid.

I really wanted to spend some professional and fun time with John and Tracey in Madrid.