First night at IAC

Coming to you from Williamsburg, Va., where, as I mentioned, 'm here for ACT/IAC's Exectutive Leadership Conference. Some tidbits:

* James Carville and Mary Matlin were the lead speakers. The two talked about the up-coming mid-term elections and the upcoming presidential election. Both sides were spinning. At one point, Carville noted that if somebody is going to be turning 48 in 2008 -- and Hillary runs -- they will have not participated in a presidential election where there was not a Clinton or a Bush on the ballot. That goes all the way back to 1980, when Bush 41 was Regan's VP candidate. Another interesting moment was when the pair was asked about Obama. Matlin actually had some nice things to say, but Carville was very critical of his lack of experience.

* Industry Advisory Council Chair Bill Piatt came out dressed for Williamsburg -- in colonial garb... complete with the pointy hat.

* Piatt stressed that IAC's goal for the next year: Putting the "A" back in IAC.

* ACT/IAC folks tell me that they have more than 800 people here, including 230 government folks.

* Next week, ACT/IAC will podcast parts of the conference. They say you can check the ACT/IAC Web site.

* ACT/IAC teams have been looking at the organization's business model and how they deal with conferences. Those reports are available for comment through... er, tomorrow. Here is the PPT presentation on ACT/IAC's business model and here is the one on conferences. I had to find them on their site, but I'll try to read them.

* And these are the kinds of moments you see at ELC -- a table with current OFPP administrator Paul Denett, Harvard Professor and former OFPP administator Steve Kelman (a FCW columnist, of course), and procurement attorney Dave Nadler, who is IAC's counsel, who is also a FCW columnists. A lot of procurement expertise at that table.

* One of the biggest complaints: There were only two bartenders for the whole crew last night. That will make people testy.