In case you couldn’t make this year’s Greater Des Moines Partnership annual dinner, we thought we’d pass along a few tidbits from our own observations and from the Twitter traffic at #DSMUSA from Thursday night’s event.

Partnership staffer Mary Bontrager danced with Polk County Supervisor Steve Van Oort to the music of jazz musician and Noce co-owner Max Wellman, at least long enough for a photo. They were dancing so quickly the photo is blurry. Bontrager still wore her headset used to guide logistics at the event. Colleague Tiffany Tauschek also wore a headset. She seemed baffled when I asked if she could tell me what time my flight would take off. 

Principal exec Dan Houston, honored for leading the Partnership board the past year and a half, got a special visit from Jamie Pollard, who runs athletics at Iowa State University. Pollard gave ISU grad Houston a Cyclone helmet signed by coach Matt Campbell. And it fit! Earlier, Houston talked about an event he attended at Harvard not long ago. “Someone said, ‘I understand you are a Harvard grad.’ ” To which Houston replied, “No, I went to Iowa State. But Harvard was my second choice.”

Keynote speaker and “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance said one of the keys to America’s success is to put money and energy into places like Des Moines — and not focus too much on fights among the San Franciscos of the country for mega developments. 

The Partnership, as part of a running series of questions on the screen, asked attendees to tweet what they are looking forward to most in 2019. For Norm Sterzenbach of GPS Impact, the riverfront skatepark is No. 1. 

Vance spoke of the difficulties people have in succeeding if they experienced several Adverse Childhood Experiences. Crista Carlile, Urbandale schools’ director of teaching and learning, tweeted that her dissertation found that hope was the biggest predictor of student risk. “Loved to hear J.D.’s thoughts on building hope in kids!” she wrote.

The Business Publications Corp. team sat at table No. 1. That didn’t get us any ISU swag, but BPC Vice President and Big Time Cyclone Jason Swanson did exchange pleasantries with Pollard, an acquaintance, as the athletic director scooted off after giving Houston the helmet.