Dean’s Speaking Tour Travelogue, Now Appearing in Your Town

So I thought 2008 was busy. Having done a few speaking gigs here and there, it felt like we were criss-crossing the country every few weeks, (hopefully) entertaining crowds and meeting with old and new friends. But this 2009 thing? Wow. In just the last couple of weeks I’ve given new media education speeches of some sort in Louisville (twice), Chattanooga, Nashville, Denver and more. In fact in one week I literally did go on the road for a 7-day roadtrip that took me through a snowstorm.

Travel is a funny thing. On some levels it is a bit exciting.

The hotels
I have become an expert at unwrapping soap. Leaf-shaped, short and squat, boxy rectangles… I can do it all with the flick of wrist. Thankfully, I’ve been able to stay at some cool hotels to do this unwrapping in. I had the luxury of staying in two classic, historic hotels in two nights: first the Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY one night and Nashville’s Hermitage Hotel the next. The Brown is cozy and cool with a player piano that plays “The Godfather theme” under chandeliers and in front of a hand-crafted bourbon bar if you wait long enough. The Hermitagehas the feeling of a mini-southern Versailles. Both remind me of our own Richmond historic hotel, The Jefferson, who frankly has them both beat in the vault of their vaultedness and for having a statue in the main lobby.

The cities
Sometimes I’m popping in and out so quick I don’t get to explore, but often I do get at least a running chance to take in some local culture. For example in Nashville I did visit Tootsie’s, which, word-to-the-wise, has nothing to do with the Dustin Hoffman movie. At. All. In Louisville I did figure out what a Hot Brown is. And in Denver… well in Denver I managed to get a stomach bug, cut my finger and miss my flight all in 8 hours so maybe that’s not the best city to talk about right now.

The airports
For the record, the Denver International Airport bathrooms are the best-looking. Beyond that and the Sweetwater brewpub in that one Atlanta concourse I always hope to get stuck in, there’s not much nice I can say about airports right now. Check back with me after a dry spell

The audiences
Seriously, and I’m not just sucking up, the audiences have been great. Be they earnest clients wanting to learn about their own company’s sentiment, to equally earnest entities at conferences wanting to know what to make of this New Media thing everyone is both excited and paranoid about (we lovingly call this the “New Media Unicorn” syndrome and Danny’s drawn an awesome picture of a unicorn you can come see in my office).

But speaking to cool audiences always brings out new info, stories and reactions to things. And you’d be surprised how similar some audiences are, be they nonprofits, a room of giant hospitals, brewers, artists or even IT departments.

The conversations
So, I’m a talker. As if this blog wasn’t evidence enough of this, get me going on new media or Generation Authentic (or for that matter music, may daughter, Marvel comics of the 1980’s, Terry Glliam movies, whether playwright Edward Albee should be classified as absurdist, or the Fallout game series). But we get into some really, really, really cool conversations. In Nashville alone at the Tenessee Society of Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations (TSHMPR) I had some fabulous chats with the audience but some particularly cool ones with the other speakers (let Johns Hopkins’ Drew Diskin tell you about the doctor who dared him to come to a surgery; or ask Franklin Street’s Liliana Rodriguez about the cool speech on women audiences).

Coming up
There’s some great stuff on the horizon… In April I get to speak at the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston which is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which is the sheer number and caliber of attendees (representatives from major craft brews Stone Brewing doing the keynote to local and chain brewpubs, to smaller but just as potent operations like Bavarian Barbarian Brewing Company, who I’m speaking with). Also coming up is CPM’s conference where I’ll be back in Denver with Danny Fell (looking for better luck) and lots of guest teaching spots at VCU, Georgetown and more- and that’s just the next 45 days!

See you on the road,

-Dean