What I Did on My Spring Vacation – BS (08)

For those following the travel saga, we ended up taking the LimoLiner, a 28 passenger deluxe bus that worked very well, although we felt the pain of a fellow traveler across from us who was sitting next to the guy who really wanted to talk politics and spilled his coffee all over both of them. This further solidifies my “Final Approach Rule” I don’t engage in transit conversation until the final 10 minutes just in case I’m seated next to some type of freak. I put on my headphones, fired up the laptop and checked out some Season 3 Doctor Who.

Lots of fun this weekend in New York City. The unofficial prelude was being lucky enough to have schedules overlap to catch Chip Griffin in the Brandy Library with the Scotch bottle, a great place to visit in Tribeca, followed up with a fantastic dinner at Pepolino.

The great part about this event was that there were no formal sessions, just social functions. The first night at an Irish Pub, followed by a boat tour around Manhattan, and a semi-formal dinner that evening (Blogger Prom, as some called it).

The highlight for me was meeting The Beasties: Ryan often confused with Justin Timberlake, Nathan with some real technical chops and mastering of the A/B split, Lijit’s mercenary Tara (but there’s a big heart in there… maybe.) and Matt with a razor sharp wit, and aggressive attack on the bar that reminds me of my days before I learned better. I haven’t laughed that much in a long time.

It was also great to meet Matt Dickman in person having followed him over on MarketingProfs.

The lowlight was chatting with Todd Andrlik, founder of the Power 150. I enjoyed talking to him but maybe he’s got Kryptonite in his bag because every time I talked to him I had no game whatsoever. He was shooting some video, asking what makes blogs influential and I tried to make a crack about using blogs for global domination. As anyone who does comedy knows, there is no middle ground. Either you win, and people laugh, or you lose and you get no laughs – the comedic equivalent of a 65 car pile up with an explosion that takes out the orphanage next door.

After my crash and burn Tara was kind enough to give me a gun to the head gesture. I was feelin’ the love.

And if that weren’t enough, we were chatting on the boat and the topic of American History came up. I said yes, I have read a lot of U.S. history, but then as I tried to dig into the database I realized that my full year of American History at school is now too far in the rear view mirror to be seen. I couldn’t even recall Stephen B. Oates, UMass prof and well known author from my time there. At least I managed to scratch up Manchester’s American Caesar, but it’s amazing how, as my career has progressed I’ve read less and less outside of my profession. Fortunately for me he was a gentleman and spared me any remarks such as “So I heard your stroke recovery is going well” or “You know I do have a coloring book about the Constitution you could check out”.

I also got to catch up with the Podcast Sisters, I always appreciate listening to Anna’s insight.

I even broke out the David Ogilvy pipe, fortunately Greg Verdino had a point and shoot to catch the moment. That’s me with Scott Monty and Linda Sherman.

Congratulations to Scott Monty for the success of the Oovoo campaign run by Crayon, complete with a $30,000 donation to the Frozen Pea Fund (and for talking me into going to the event). The lovely Carin joined me for Breakfast with the Monty’s, the Savvy Auntie, and Jason Falls, who we will probably be visiting soon as Carin is looking for an excuse to see the horse races, and I want to tour a distillery.

There’s plenty of pictures up on flickr if you’d like to take a look around.