When I started at Ragan in the early 1990s, we were all so young.
At the Corporate Communicators Conference, the editors never slept--we worked all day and drank all night (often with attenders) in exhilaration mostly attributable to the wild rush of being put up in a downtown Chicago hotel.
Last night we quit when the Hyatt bar shut down around 1:00; but the way I feel today puts me in mind of those sleepless conferences of yesteryear. The nostalgia makes the hangover bearable.
But I'm in no shape to give a decent conference report, beyond saying it was full of all the usual joy to see old friends and meet new communicators.
So for now I'll just share the rather trite-but-heartfelt advice I gave at the last conference session before the cocktail party that launched a million drinks:
"Let’s blog less and listen more. Let’s live in our beautiful world and not in our computers. Let’s do the work that needs to be done rather than the work that happens to be on our to-do list. And for the love of whoever, let’s turn off our cell phones and our Blackberries while we’re with the people we say we love."
Comments (13)
Aww, you've gone and gotten all WISE on me.
Doing the work that needs to be done rather than what's on our to-do list--that's the kicker, ain't it? That's following our bliss. That's knowing what in the world we're each meant to be an ANSWER to. And sometimes it might be something we get paid for, but sometimes it's just slowing down to notice someone else's misery or joy.
Posted by Jane Greer | May 10, 2007 1:39 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 13:39
David, in case I haven't told you lately, I love you, man!
Posted by Robert J Holland, ABC | May 10, 2007 1:44 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 13:44
Nicely put, Jane; we've got to keep in touch with this notion at all times.
And Robert: I love you too.
Posted by David Murray | May 10, 2007 1:51 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 13:51
You have gotten old, man. You quit drinking because of a little thing like the hotel bar shutting down? Where's your creativity...your sense of adventure?
One year at the IABC International conference in Toronto, when we returned to the hotel from the Night Out only to find the hotel bar shut down (as were all the bars in town, no less) at midnight, I rolled my room mini-bar down to the lobby, plugged it in an outlet and set up my version of a Speakeasy!
Of course, I had to do some very creative writing to get my expense report past accounting but it was worth it.
Ahhh...those were the days.
Posted by Craig Jolley | May 10, 2007 2:50 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 14:50
That's the stuff of legends are made of, Craig.
Posted by David Murray | May 10, 2007 6:59 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 18:59
I'll never forget sneaking into the pool after hours at the Century Plaza at the IABC international conference in Los Angeles and continuing our party in the hot tub. No shortage of great memories from communications conferences.
Posted by Ron Shewchuk | May 11, 2007 8:04 AM
Posted on May 11, 2007 08:04
Where is Ned Lundquist when you need him? He has a great story about going to a biker bar.
Posted by Robert J Holland, ABC | May 11, 2007 9:41 AM
Posted on May 11, 2007 09:41
I liked the woo-woo rant about live bloggers the best. As you were waving your arms around, the guy with the laptop next to me stared blankly ahead, pretending (perhaps wishing) his computer was far, far away.
I almost yelled, "Get him!"
But I'm not sure why.
Posted by Chuck Blomberg | May 11, 2007 4:00 PM
Posted on May 11, 2007 16:00
Here's the line about live-bloggers that I'm sticking with:
"Stop live-blogging before I give you something to live-blog about."
Posted by David Murray | May 13, 2007 7:05 PM
Posted on May 13, 2007 19:05
>>That's the stuff of legends are made of, Craig.) and I'm sure he has many more.
Someone needs to preserve these memories lest they are lost to antiquity. I haven't been to a IABC or CCC conference in years but I get a sense that the next generation isn't carrying on the hallowed traditions.
I mean, how can anyone know the feeling of accomplishment in showing up at the IABC morning opening general session, with a bottle of Blue, after staying up all night in the Canadian hospitality suite, unless someone tells them? Or hijacking the bus on the Monday night out event to go club hopping around D.C.?
What other traditions from the CCC need to be preserved and passed along to youner communicators?
Some things are just too important to let fade away!
Posted by Craig Jolley | May 14, 2007 7:30 AM
Posted on May 14, 2007 07:30
Do you remember the Yards of Beer at the Fairmont Hotel?
You weren't in the elevator when in a frenzy of excitement, Steve Crescenzo dropped a full bottle of Chivas Regal--a gift from Ron Shewchuk--on the floor, where it shattered.
And many more that I'm sure I don't remember.
Posted by David Murray | May 14, 2007 10:38 AM
Posted on May 14, 2007 10:38
Yes, I remember the yards of beer, although I had first saw them in Pittsburgh a few months earlier.
I wasn't there to see Steve do his juggling act but it doesn't surprise me...he does have a way around top shelf liquor doesn't he?
I remember the time that Ragan put me up in the Presidential suite when I came in to town to meet with Steve and about something or other. There we were, Steve, Charles and me, arguing about something in a Ragan conference when finally I said, "this is stupid....Ragan has me set up in a suite almost the size of my house overlooking the lake and we're sitting here?!?!?!
We promptly moved the venue and got down to serious negotiations, aided by various spirit lubricants culminated many long hous later by my ordering a $350 bottle of Dom Perignon from room service and watching Steve almost have an orgasm!
Posted by Craig Jolley | May 14, 2007 2:47 PM
Posted on May 14, 2007 14:47
Robert, the story you were referring to was not about a biker bar, per se. It's just that there were guys on motocycles on the stage doing wheelies into the mosh pit. I think there is a distinction there.
Ned
(In order to reduce spam, please send money to lundquist989@cs.com)
Posted by Ned Lundquist, ABC | May 31, 2007 11:59 AM
Posted on May 31, 2007 11:59