The Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center dangles like a giant glass prism on the banks of the Potomac River across from Alexandria Va. in National Harbor Maryland. National Harbor, just south of Washington D.C., seems to be the perfect home for the behemoth; the yet to be finished waterfront development, consisting of convention centers, hotels, shopping and restaurants seems to be being built almost exclusively for conferences such as GAMA International's LAMP, in the same utilitarian fashion that Brasilia was constructed to be Brazil's national capital.
GAMA International supports the professional development of field leaders in the insurance and financial services industries. LAMP, GAMA's annual conference, gives field leaders a chance to gather with peers and attend educational sessions on field management trends and techniques. 
Walking into the Gaylord can even tilt someone from the New York metropolitan area's head back and chin up in awe of its sheer size. With its 19 story, ascending glass atrium with over 2,000 guest rooms and over 470,000 square feet of meeting space, the place can envelop you.
However, it was not the Gaylord that was the most interesting aspect of walking into the conference but rather the wide array of people that the conference was comprised of. In a feature article that I wrote in October of last year entitled Color Blind, I looked into the different diversity programs that insurance companies were offering to foster synergy in the ever-changing demographic of the country. What I found was that many companies were involved in diversity programs to both broaden the scope of their workforce and to reach out to different groups.
