And a ball was had by all.

Another epic Schwab Impact has concluded, with the 2013 event Stand Up! Stand Out! running from Sunday, Nov. 10, to Wednesday, Nov.14 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, located at Mt. Vernon Square.

The premier shindig had 1848 advisors in attendance and 944 exhibitors.

To be sure, the space was enormous, all majestic glass and steel, with Schwab accents of blue and white. There were dozens of hyperkinetic college volunteers always at hand to give directions, copies of the Conference's newsletter or simply to say "Hello."

The exhibit hall itself featured booths ranging from extreme to prosaic, with multiple food stations, two pubs in the back (one for the Bulls, and the other for the Bears) featuring foosball and billiards. There was also a full-blown CNBC temporary studio on hand for attendee interviews.

There were educational sessions either on the exhibit hall or in various meeting rooms.

There were also the seven main keynote sessions, featuring such luminaries as Schwab's chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders and Potomac Group's chief political strategist Greg Valliere, as well as futurist Dan Tapscott. Other keynote speakers included former Senator Olympia Snowe and author Daniel Pink.



Another one of the luminaries featured during the keynote presentations was Leon Panetta, who has served as Secretary of Defense, Head of the CIA, Head of the Office of Management and Budget, among other notable roles during his nearly 50-years in public service. Panetta expressed his frustration over Federal legislative gridlock, and the impact he believes it is having on this country's defense.

"I think it is fair to say I have a great sense of timing when to get the hell out of this town," Panetta said at one point during his conversation with Schwab senior vice president Naureen Hassan. "I think I have been in public service now almost 50-years. I have never in these 50-years seen Washington as dysfunctional as it is today."

The final entertainment consisted of an interview with noted author Michael Lewis, whose 14 books include The Blind Side, Moneyball and Liar's Poker. Lewis, who was interviewed by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes, talked on a variety of topics: from the challenges of regulating the financial markets, particularly high frequency trading to how President Barack Obama plays basketball and handles life as president. Lewis also on spoke the Oakland A's, the subject of his book Moneyball and how their strategies for picking players reflects on how people are valued in American society. He concluded with a hilarious story of how eight years ago his then three-year-old daughter stood up to a group of older boys with guts, smarts and stunningly strong language.

It was clear that organizers wanted the event to ring with fun as much as possible. There was singing, a visual artist who built Washington-inspired constructions out of cards, and impersonators of Washington celebrities such as former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.



And there were events. Fund firms and other exhibitors wined and dined advisors and other clients throughout the city. The ICI hosted an event at the modern Greek restaurant Zaytina. Aberdeen Asset Managemtn hosted a St. Andrews Day Celebration at the contemporary American restaurant Lincoln. The event featured four legednary single malt Scotch whiskeys, including a Highland 18-year, a a Balvenie 1401 Tun, a Glendranoch 18-year and a Glenrothes 1995. There were jokes told in a variety of accents, and a surprisingly tasty example of contemporary haggis.

Schwab itself held a gala at the Air & Space Museum where attendees were able to gape early airplanes, modern skunkworks technology and scarily tiny space capsules.

At one point, a few giant brightly-lit balls (one was at least five feet in diameter) were let loose among the attendees as they waited for a keynote presentation, while the hyper-kinectic volunteers boogied athletically, and well, with green lights for directing audience traffic.



The next Schwab Impact will be held in Denver in November 2014. 

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