ISRAEL in FOCUS 2005: Orlando, FL

I managed to convince my organization to run this year's national Israel in Focus advocacy conference in Orlando. We had around 150 students from all over the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. attend the 3 day weekend event.

Before the conference I flew down to Ft. Lauderdale and visited students at FAU (Florida Atlantic University) and met with Hillel professionals from the Ft. Lauderdale and Boca Raton area. We spent Thursday morning driving up to Orlando listening to the Idan Raichel Project.

Thursday night we headed to UCF (University of Central Florida) for an Israel fair and concert featuring Israeli rocker David Broza.

On Friday, I spent hours at the Orlando airport picking up the British students we specially flew in for this conference. I love traveling, but I despise airports. 

The conference itself featured a fun and over the top Shabbat service hosted by Rabbi Yonah from Long Beach, who's awesome, and lectures by Nonie Darwish, Aryeh Green, and Itamar Marcus. 

The hotel we stayed in wasn't the best. They had another convention going on simultaneously, putting a hamper onto our conference. Other issues arose with the kosher food. The caterer was a total idiot. Not a fun experience dealing with him.

Saturday night was by far the best part of the conference. We brought all the students to Universal Students City Walk, filled with clubs, bars, and just awesome nightlife. I chilled with the other SWU staff at the Hard Rock Cafe. 

Overall it was a great conference, glad we had it in sunny Orlando in November.