Trip To Arkansas

I had the honor of being chosen to attend the 2011 Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting this year in Fayette,AR. It was quite an experience, one that I don't think that I will forget for a very long time.
There were 30 Walmart Associates on our bus that left from the Beech Grove Store at 5:15 on May 31st. We made one stop and arrived at 4:30.
The largest crowd that I have been in is Dayton IHC, so in comparison to that this event was 3-4 times in size. All being Wal-Mart Associates including the International groups. I truly enjoyed watching the International Associates, they were so proud of their culture and being associated with the largest retailer in the world. They marched and carried their countries flag and sang with pride.
The dining hall that we had breakfast in was huge.. They had buffet meals with 20-25 buffet lines and could feed around 3,000 at a time. The lines were very quickly for the amount of people that there were.
The first day after we checked-in to our dorms we headed to the Bud Walton Arena for a concert featuring Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum..
Wednesday morning meeting very interesting to hear of the new exciting things coming to the stores in the future and then another concert featuring Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band. We had center seats row 6 and seat 4 very good view, the band was fantastic..
The Vendors Fair was really nice so many things going on you were busy both days all day in that area. I got to meet Mr. Bill Simon which to me was an honor.
The visit to Home Office was very educational. I was completely surprised at this facility. I was expecting a huge fancy building but in fact looked more like a school building, I enjoyed seeing where they have the Sat. morning meetings, the walmart TV room was really cool.
I LOVED the first Walmart visitors center, saw Mr. Sam's truck, his office which they took video from every angle to get it exactly like his office was in the Home Office. Helen's wedding dress. Many more things I can't even begin to mention.
The Shareholders Meeting was different, the business part was a little boring but then they brought out the entertainment and things got very loud. Will Smith was the guest of honor and made the meeting fun, Scotty from American Idol sang, also Alecia Keys, The Canadian Tenors and the Black Eyed Peas. It was quite an event.
I felt honored that out of 1.4 million associates I was picked to go.. Had a great time and heard many great stories.