Frantic

Post by Alan Jordan

That's the word that first comes to mind to describe the pace of this
conference. And I don't mean that in a bad way but, honestly, it's been
non-stop since 7:30AM, and I have about 20 minutes until my next appointment.

So, why is this? From what I've experienced, people seem more interested in
getting information, making connections, sharing experiences, and finding
solutions. What I haven't seen as much are the war stories. Perhaps, we
all have had enough of our own war stories in the past twelve months that the
"venting" is just too painful—or unproductive. In any event, there's
drive here in Chicago. The people with whom I've interacted see the
challenges and are ready to take them on.

A long-time colleague remarked about how humorous it was that no one was
willing to admit how tough things are. In my mind, that's a given. We all
know it's "the worst of times." And there's a lot that we cannot
control or fix. So our focus should be on what we can fix. (First
"take-home:" get, "Polarity Management" by Barry Johnson. It
addresses just this topic. Thanks Andrew!)

Other notables today:

1) Beyond the Score—very interesting and enlightening presentation. Glad
the Civic still had enough chops left to play the whole New World in the
second half.

2) Churn and churn busters—THE buzz word and topic. Be prepared to hear
more on this for years.

3) "Being non-profit does not mean being stupid." (Actually, a quote
from yesterday, but so true! We don't need excuses like that. When this
economic mess is done, wouldn't it be nice to hear the phrase, "you should
run your business more like the Symphony!?"

4) Henry, the accolades today were wonderful but still do not convey how much
our field owes you! I add my thanks to everyone else's.

Off to my next meeting.

# # #