Some circles come together quite naturally, while others rarely seem to intersect at all. That’s why an event that brings some of the most important circles in your life together is impossible to ignore. Having such an opportunity present itself twice within a two-week period just a few hundred miles apart is almost impossible to resist. At least, it was for me!

One event was being sponsored by an automotive training institution that specializes in helping shop owners like me realize their dreams and achieve their personal goals and objectives. I’ve been close to this group for as long as I can remember, a participating member for almost a decade. It is so much a part of my life it has become its own circle, and this event has become so critically important to my professional growth and personal development that I plan my vacation around it and have already put next year’s event on the calendar.

Despite the fact that it has grown bigger in both size and in its aspirations, it is still intimate and inviting. It brings a select group of industry professionals together for an intensely packed four days of speakers, breakout sessions and one-on-ones with a number of its preferred vendors.

The second event was exponentially larger. Eight to ten times larger: different, but no less rewarding. The trade show was exceptional with some of the largest and most respected companies in our industry represented on the show floor by some their highest-level executives. If you were a shop owner with a need to talk to someone who could solve a problem or actually make a difference, I’m not sure you could ever find a better opportunity.

Two events filled with countless opportunities to learn and grow both personally and professionally. Two events designed to raise the bar both for the organizations that made them possible and for all those in attendance: two events that brought seemingly disparate and sometimes contentious elements of our industry together if only briefly.

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It was powerful. It was personal. It was impossible. And, like the magician who demonstrates “The Mystery of the Chinese Rings” by joining together and then breaking apart three or four shiny and unbroken steel rings at will — steel circles that would not be broken and could never intersect — it was magical.

And, yet, these two organizations — along with a number of other such organizations around the nation — did exactly that. They brought together a number of seemingly unbroken circles, circles that don’t normally occupy the same space at the same time, and they did it masterfully.

I love magic, especially the magic of the Chinese rings. I’m enthralled by it. So enthralled I can watch it over and over again.

I loved the magic these two events created — the powerful magic of intersecting circles. I enjoyed it so much I hope to experience again and again, as often as someone is willing to set the stage, open the curtain and snap those circles together.