MEI's 64th Annual Conference Breaks All Records: Some In-House Boasting

Some in-house notes/praise/vicarious boasting. As I noted over the past couple of days, we've been in the midst of the Middle East Institute's 64th Annual Conference. Having gone to college and grad school here and lived in the DC area for all but four or five years of my career, I've been to a lot of these, as a student, an ordinary member, and more recently as Editor of the Journal and a senior staff member at MEI. This was by far the best attended, and I would also say (though I should admit I'm biased) the best in terms of content. Bill Clinton as the banquet speaker drew our biggest-ever banquet crowd, and yesterday's panels were also well attended, with Saeb Erekat as the lunch speaker.

Our Vice President for Programs and Communications Kate Seelye, Director of Development Kelly Davies, and all the staff (let me especially thank my own Journal staff — that's you, Aaron Reese, Rachel Wilson and John Calabrese — who were selling subscriptions and back issues all day) and interns (perhaps most overworked of all) worked full throttle to put this thing together and deserve a lot of credit. Our grossly overworked IT guy (yes, singular), Howard Fleming (take a bow, Howard, when you're able to stand up), was present throughout, working his tech magic, and when the paramedics succeed in reviving him, podcasts will eventually start to appear, so I won't bother to try to abridge or summarize any of the content here. Transcripts and video will take longer, but as soon as something you can listen to is up, I'll be sure to link to it. Or you can just check the MEI website regularly. (You should do that anyway, of course.)

All in all a triumph. Also, of course, I should compliment the folks in charge, our Chairman, Senator Wyche Fowler, and our President, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, who presided over the success.

This is starting to sound like I'm accepting an academy award, but to be honest, I probably did the least work of anybody at the conference (so why are my feet sore?), but at least I can thank and acknowledge those who did yeoman service. I don't overdo the in-house ads, I hope, on this blog, but I do want to give credit where it's due. This blog wouldn't exist without MEI and all it does.

As I say, I won't try to summarize, but will link when media is available. More postings on other subjects later today.