Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" was delivered on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon University's McConomy Auditorium. Over 450 Carnegie Mellon students, staff members, and friends of Pausch attended the lecture, leaving only standing room as this was more than the auditorium could hold. Pausch later commented about this in an interview, saying "A couple of hundred people in a room, looking and listening and laughing and applauding – hopefully at the appropriate times – that gives a lot of validation to my kids that a lot of people believe in this, and a lot of people who knew me believe that I did my best to try to live this way." The first introduction of the speech as well as the series of lectures was given by Indira Nair, the Vice Provost for Education at Carnegie Mellon. Nair first explained the university's aforementioned lecture series called "Journeys", in which eight more professors from Carnegie Mellon would share their insights on their professional and personal experiences over the years.
Pikes Peak Writers Conference
The 2007 Pikes Peak Writers Conference was held April 20–22, 2007 at the Marriott Colorado Springs on Tech Center Drive. (Formerly known as the Wyndham Hotel.) Featured speakers included Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files series, Robert Crais, author of the Elvis Cole books, Mary Jo Putney, USAToday bestselling author of romance and fantasy and Dr. Eric Maisel, renown creativity coach. The conference celebrated its 15th year with several special events including a Thursday night booksigning, an additional track of workshops on Friday, a Saturday night Awards Banquet and 15th Anniversary Celebration and a never-before Sunday-only option for readers and fans of Robert Crais.