Meetings in NYC

A week or so a go, I headed down to New York for at meeting at Hachette Book Group. Rather than drive in like I usually do, I took Amtrak from Springfield. I can't wait until the line comes back to downtown Holyoke so I can walk from down the street to the station.

I arrived earlier in the day for a stroll through the city and so I could stop by and say hello to some clients. I headed over to Warner Music Group headquarters in midtown and as I was leaving the building, I bumped into one of the most dapper musicians around, Tim Nordwind from OKGo. We talked for a bit and then I went on my way to EMI / Capitol / Virgin down near the beautiful Flatiron.

Then, I was onto the main reason I was in the city, a meeting with the good folks at Hachette, the second larger publishing group in the world. I met a bunch of the talented people that lead many of James Patterson's online initiatives. I also had the exciting opportunity of meeting James Patterson! Overall, I was very impressed with the way they do things over there.

After the meeting, I had a quick dinner at Brasserie Les Halles and then I was on my way back home. It's always an adventure when I'm in New York, I can't wait to go back.

It's All Here

This past Thursday, I was in Cambridge at Akamai Technologies headquarters for the start of the day. I was recently appointed to the Advisory Council for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' "It's All Here" campaign and was there for the launch event. Powerful words were delivered by Greg Bialecki, J.D. Sherman (CFO of Akamai), and Robert Culver (CEO of MassDevelopment) to warm up the crowd. Soon after, the Commonwealth's communications guru, Kofi Jones took the floor and unveiled the campaign. You can read more about the initiative in the Boston Globe.

Anyways, from the invention of chocolate chip cookies, to the technology that powers the internet, endless innovations flow from this state and it's time to take another look at everything that's here... especially those cookies.

The Wodka Wars

"Vice Scandinavia correspondent Ivar Berglin travels to the front lines of the Vodka/Wodka Wars – and discovers that the tortured history of Russian-Polish relations can be saved in a bottle."



At first glance, I thought this would be a comedic piece about vodka, but as the documentary played on it revealed a powerful story of Polish nationalism, identity, history - and of course, the rightful origin of wodka. I was very impressed by this video.

Note: When I was in Kraków a few years ago, there were no people walking around in giant beer costumes. Maybe next time?