Hello all,
I was priviledged not only to attend the Symposium but was also staff, as IT Manager. I worked on registration when they found themselves short handed for that function and I was priviledged to check in Dale Napier when he arrived.
He is very nice and always, and I mean always, has a smile on his face.
I tried to be nice to Dale every time I saw him, as we REALLY wanted him to give us a good mention in your magazine!
Seriously though, he was always a gentleman and we truly enjoyed having his participation at our little event.

HI DALE!! We hope you say nice things about us!!

I announced the Symposium on this forum on a thread quite a while back however there was very little response. I was pleasantly surprised when quite a few of the participants told me they had heard about the Symposium from my announcement thread on this site though. So I guess there are quite a few more people who read this forum than who post on it.

On to the good stuff:
The Symposium was truly awesome. All of the Grand Masters who participated gave excellent instruction during their classes and demonstrated an incredible level of knowledge about Tai Chi Chuan during their lectures and round table discussions.
Of course that is to be expected, since all of their first names are "Grand"...
Attending the event can only be called the definition of "information overload". It was five straight days of non-stop, morning to night, learning about Tai Chi Chuan and it's effects on health. We started early in the morning, 6:15 a.m., on the Esplanade of Vanderbilt University with "morning warm ups with the Grand Masters". Each morning there were two GM's leading warm ups in their style at opposite ends of the Esplanade. This was a truly wonderful way to wake up, get stretched and warmed up and get to mingle with some of the true greats of our art.
It was pretty eye opening to be standing next to people like Hang Hoong Wang, Violet Li, Eugene Gaudreau, Rod Fergusson, Betsy Chapman, Jan Guyron (I hope I spelled everyone's names correctly) and on one morning...
Dale Napier
and seeing them line up right along with the rest of us lowly students and warm up with the GM's.
After that, BREAKFAST!!
After breakfast we went to the days "Keynote Address". Each GM addressed us with many insights into their art. I have extensive notes on every address except for GM Sun, who I had to miss for Symposium business.
From there those of us in Group B (there were two groups, A and B) went to the Sportsplex and took our classes on the 16 posture forms of the various family styles. It was a good venue, if quite a bit warm. I will not go into too many details on the classes except to say that every one of them was truly wonderful.
After the morning lesson, Lunch!!
After lunch was the lecture series done by the academics, medical and scientific experts as well as some Masters of TCC like Rod Fergusson. The only problem with these lectures was that there were always three groups of three lecturers to choose from! You had to decide which series you were going to see for the day and it was always, always a tough choice. I wish there had been three of me, so I could see them all!
After that, Group B once again recollected and we would go the Life Center for the afternoon class. A truly remarkable place to hold the classes. Very comfortable.
After class, DINNER!
After dinner there was always a special event. Monday was the 10 Year Anniversary of the International Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association Banquet. It was truly wonderful and I want to once again thank the Executive Director of the Symposium, Lauren Wade, for showing us all a truly good time while we were in Nashville. She did the best job I've ever seen anyone do keeping us entertained every night.
Anyway, the Banquet was HUGE, with all the GM's and their families and disciples there. I must say it was a special treat to see the GM's singing opera...
There was a very special announcement made at the banquet regarding Master Yang Jun, the President of our Association. He was named the fifth lineage holder of the Yang Family that night by Grand Master Yang Zhen Duo. I feel priviledged to have attended the event to see him come into his own.
There were different events each night, all of them were truly wonderful. The Friendship Banquet and BBQ on Friday night was quite a treat. Again, Lauren Wade and her daughter Nicole Fedele did simply a terrific job putting that all together for us to enjoy.

What else to say? There's simply too much to put into words. I'd be here for days...
For those who would like to get a small taste of the event, Violet Li has a shutterfly page to post pictures. The link to that is:
http://internationattaichisymposium.shutterfly.com/

You'll even see me on there in some pics, but I'm not saying where!

Mike Lucero also has a shutterfly account that he linked on the Yang Family Tai Chi site: taichisymposium.shutterfly.com
There's a pic or two of me on there as well...

I hope to hear from others who attended the Symposium as well to get their feelings on the happenings there.