I’ve been sitting here trying to think of a clever or meaningful way to sum up my experiences at The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas last week, and I simply can’t think of anything to do the experience justice. I certainly had an atypical experience compared to most — because I had a press pass for this blog, I had the pleasure of interviewing about a dozen speakers, each of whom was as nice and smart and interesting as could be.

That alone would have made for a remarkable experience. But, on top of that, I made some great friends, had some of the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had, got to just hang out with people whom I have admired for years, learned so much, ate a bunch of doughnuts, and rediscovered my child-like delight in close-up magic. Despite the fact that it seemed like every single person was about a million times smarter than me, I never felt like anyone was looking down at me or acting above me. Everyone I encountered seemed equally eager to teach and to learn.

If it sounds like I’m gushing, it’s because it truly was one of the most amazing weekends of my life. Thanks to not only the entire team at TAM for making me feel welcome, but also to Hemant for making this thing happen for me and Mikey for being my partner-in-crime while I was there.

Oh, and this is a conversation I had about a dozen times:

Random Person: Oh, you’ve got a press pass? Who do you write for?

Me: A blog called Friendly Atheist.

Random Person: OH! I’ve heard of that! Is Hemant here, too?!

Me: Nope, just me and Mikey!

Random Person: … Oh.

Needless to say, Hemant, your presence was missed! [Hemant says: I miss you, too, TAM!]

Anyway, on to the important stuff.

We filmed and tape-recorded all of the interviews. Most of them ran between 15-45 minutes. As of now, the plan is for Mikey to trim down the videos to about 10 minutes or so and put them up on YouTube for all of you. If anyone is interested, I’ll put up the uncut audio as well.

We’ll release the interviews one by one as Mikey finishes them up. We’re aiming to put out about two per week.

To kick it off, here is a trailer that he just finished cutting together to give you an idea of who you’ll be hearing from in the coming weeks: