I CAN DO IT - Las Vegas (27th-29th June 2008)

I felt priviledged to have been invited to speak at Hay House's I CAN DO IT conference in Las Vegas.

My partner, Elizabeth, and I arrived on Thursday 26th June - to a temperature of 40C (104F) - and checked into our hotel, the Pallazzo, which is owned by and next to the Venetian. We spent Thursday afternoon just relaxing before having dinner and taking a walk along the famous strip (we just had to visit Caeser's Palace). We walked along the strip at around 11pm and it was still around 38C (100F).

On Friday we attended a full day workshop by Bruce Lipton. It was amazing. Bruce gave astounding insights into how our beliefs cause changes at the cellular and genetic level.

We went to the author's room for lunch. It's a room where authors and their partners and Hay House staff could use to come and go throughout the day and pick up some lunch from the buffet. The lunch was terriffic. I had a nice bowl of soup and a salad. We sat at a table beside Steve Pavlina and his wife Erin. This was Steve's first time as a speaker and author at a Hay House event. He had attened the past 4 years as an audience member but was now an author. Steve runs the most visited personal development website in the world. He gets around 2 million hits a month. His book, Personal Development for Smart People is due for release in October.

We got on really well with Steve and Erin. It was also good because we shared the common fact that we were I CAN DO IT rookies.

On Friday night we attended Wayne Dyer's keynote speech. It was wonderful. Wayne gave an inspirational talk in front of around 3-4,000 people. I have always been a huge fan of Wayne. When I left the pharmaceutical industry in 1999, a bought some of Wayne Dyer's audio tapes and listened to them again and again and again. This helped to inspire me to become an author and speaker and solidify my own teachings (I like to focus my teachings on how we can make the world a better place, inspiring more love and kindness in the world).

On Saturday morning, Louise Hay gave an inspirational opening talk, which was followed by an inspiring keynote by Robert Holden. As well as imparting great wisdom, Robert also made everyone laugh...a lot.

This warmed me up for the afternoon because Robert Holden, Michael Neill and myself did a live one-hour Hay House radio broadcast at 1.30pm, called 'Cultivating Happiness'. It was such fun. The 3 of us got on really well and the interview contained lots of laughter, which was a great advert for happiness.

I must admit that before the interview I was a little nervous because I have admired Robert and Michael for a long time and consider them to be heavyweights in the 'how to be happy' field. On my first time meeting with them, I was to share a live interview on their subject topics. But it turned out so well. I was able to share the science of how our thoughts and attitudes affect our health. We worked well together and I am hopeful that we have a chance to work together again in the future.

Saturday night was the author's dinner at Dos Caminos inside the Pallazzo hotel. It started on a high because we were met at the entrance to the Hay House hired section by Louise Hay. I was absolutely thrilled, and even more so when she asked someone to take a photo.

It was a lovely meal and we sat with Steve and Erin again. We also chatted with Summer McStravick - Hay House Radio producer/director - and her husband Charie, who is a designer at Hay House, who were also at our table.

At the end we chatted with James Twyman for a bit. We had met James before during a lecture concert tour of Scotland. He came and spent time with us at the Spirit Aid Foundation offices in Glasgow, Scotland, which is a charity that I co-founded with Marc Wynn and David Hayman. James is a very down to earth guy and a great teacher, so it was really nice to round of the evening with him.

On Sunday 29th it was my turn to speak. Around 300 people attended, which was quite a surprise for me because my book isn't scheduled for US release until Feb 09, so I'm not too well known in the US.

My talk was called, 'It's the Thought that Counts', which is the title of my book. I really enjoyed speaking to a US audience. Beforehand, I wondered how my sense of humour would be received but it seemed to go down well.

After my talk, we took a well-earned relaxing break at the pool. Just what we needed. Then I attended Gregg Braden's keynote talk to end the conference. It was an awesome multimedia presentation that gave powerful insights into how we create our world. I was inspired will most defeinately go to hear Gregg speak again.

We left Las Vegas on Sunday and started our holiday. We went to Napa for 3 days and then visited our dear friend Olivia in Los Angeles. All round, we had a great and memorable trip to the US.