A DECADE+ OF STORYTELLING POWERED BY THE BEST WRITERS ON THE PLANET

BE PART OF THE LEGACY

TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

This FINAL encore experience will be unlike any other. Because like everything we do, it's been "reimagined" from beginning to end. It's not a virtual or hybrid event. It's not a conference. It's not a seminar, a workshop, a meeting, or a symposium. And it's not your typical run-of-the-mill everyday event crammed with stages, keynote speeches, team-building exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and all the other conventional humdrum. Because it's up close & personal by design. Where conversation trumps presentation. And where authentic connection runs deep.

Troubadours Of The Lost Highways

The Artist

The Artist may see the lake colorful in the morning light and know that he must put this morning on a canvas saving this as a memory for many lifetimes.  The Artist makes the colors come alive, vibrant, bold yet with a certain softness, a canvas pleasant to view.  The lake will change with the seasons and the Artist will paint each one for prosperity, leaving the canvas as a legacy.

The Artist may never leave his studio, standing before his easel tightly holding the blank canvas.  He will fill the space with colors, dark with touches of light.  He will find the painting within the colors and shapes as the canvas reveals its imagery.  Each person that views the painting will see something different, it will mean many things to many people. It truly will be in the eyes of the beholder.

The Artist may be filled with passion, painting several canvases at a time.  He becomes shackled to his art.  He is like a star becoming a Nova, the brightest star in the night yet the flame will burn itself out.  There will be forever a dark hole in the night sky, perhaps the Artist will consume his art and then become consumed by the very thing he loves.  He must control the flame, turning it down so that it will last a lifetime.  He can only hope as the creations, the inspiration and the passion are the very things that fed the flame.  His paintings are bold, filled with flames, purples, bright reds and some say these are the colors of passion.

The true Artist may paint from within, releasing the image rather than creating the image.  They don’t worry about how the painting will turn out, only believing that the colors find their places on the canvas.  The end result completes the cycle of creation and looks to the next blank canvas.  The Artist turns the light off leaving only one spotlight lighting the canvas and walks out into the darkness.

Life gifts us with poets, writers, storytellers, artists, and troubadours. They are the chosen few, a band of hardcore troubadours that travel the lost highways together.

They sit and stare at the blank page at 3 a.m. in the morning waiting for the poem to awaken so that it may be unleashed. It will come, maybe not tonight but the poem and the poet will in time reveal its secrets.

When the night comes, we will all gather at the Writer’s Café, sharing our stories, writing sad songs, and putting to canvas the lost highway. Perhaps we might even find the shadow dancers and secret gardens of legend.

Larry Tyler
Larry Tyler
Awaken the possibilities … then unleash them. After 55 years of successful retail management, I have returned to my passion of writing. I write Poetry, Storytelling, and Short Stories. As a child, I grew up on front porch storytelling. I would sit and listen to my Dad and his brothers tell these great stories that were captivating, and I always wanted to hear more. I wanted to experience the things they talked about. I started writing at a young age and reading everything I could get my hands on. At twelve years old I started a storytelling group and several of my friends became writers or poets. At 16 I hopped box cars and worked the tobacco fields, orange groves, picked cotton, and spent many nights around a campfire listing to life stories. Someone once asked me why I wrote. It consumes an amazing amount of time and I assure you it is not going to make me rich. I write so that my children can touch and feel my words telling of the ones that came before us and the stories they told me. These are the chronicles of our family and even though they come from my childhood memories and are deeply rooted in a child’s remembrance at least they may feel what it was like in the time before them and cherish the things the elders left behind. I am a Columnist & Featured Contributor, BIZCATALYST360 and I have The Writers Café, a group on LinkedIn that features Poets, Writers, Artists, Photographers, and Musicians . On Facebook I have two groups and one page; Dirt Road Storytelling, From Abandoned To Rescue Dogs And Cats, and About Life, Love And Living. As writers, it is true that we honestly do not know what we hold within us until we unleash it. When our words inspire others only then will inspiration return to the writer. I will spend my twilight years in search of the next story, the next poem, and the next image. I will take the time to enjoy my Wife, our Dogs, and Cats, and our amazing new home and I will always find the time to walk down a dirt road I truly hope is that I never have to read another book on Leadership, be on a conference call or see another plan o gram as these were the tool for what I did in life and not about who I am.

DO YOU HAVE THE "WRITE" STUFF? If you’re ready to share your wisdom of experience, we’re ready to share it with our massive global audience – by giving you the opportunity to become a published Contributor on our award-winning Site with (your own byline). And who knows? – it may be your first step in discovering your “hidden Hemmingway”. LEARN MORE HERE


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