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Monday
May 19, 2008 No Sex (But Lots of Fun) and the CityHi Everyone – The week of May 5th week was the first-ever ASI Show in New York City and it was a blast! This year’s Counselor Top 40 banquet was held at the quintessential New York hot spot Cipriani, and it was fantastic. At my table were my pals Jo-an Lantz from Geiger, Scott Siegel from R.S. Owens and Gemline owner Jonathan Isaacson, who is this year’s Counselor International Person of the Year. Jonathan’s knowledge on the topic is so vast and his passion for conveying the widespread impact that pricing issues in Asia will have on our industry is so contagious, that he actually has me saying things like this to my girlfriends over cocktails: “Prices on items imported from China have been so cheap due to its government’s refusal to let the yuan float against the U.S. dollar; that’s going to change as China is now exporting its inflationary markets to the U.S.” It would be at this point, if my life had its own soundtrack, that you’d here the crickets chirping over the Grey Goose, as my friends gaped at me, slack jawed.
Friday
March 21, 2008 The End of the Roadshow… Out with a Bang, Not a WhimperFiled under: ASI Shows, Fun, Travel Hey there Everyone! My apologies for just getting this final blog installment from last week’s Advantages road show through the Midwest to you now. Frankly, it took a few days for my internal organs to stop quivering. Some people may leave their hearts in San Francisco, but my lungs and liver are in Des Moines and St. Louis.
Thursday
March 13, 2008 Kooks Invade Kansas City; Locals Flee in FrightFiled under: ASI Shows, Fun, Travel Hi from Kansas City, where it is day four of the Advantages Roadshow though it feels like day 8, 895. You’ll all be happy to know that Kansas City has been a blast and today’s attendance at the show was 199 — suppliers are freaking ecstatic. “The quality of the attendees has been really good across the board,” says Tom Ngo, director of sales and marketing for Key-Bak and the person who has been my handler on this trip. Tom has also been the bartender extraordinaire on the bus — he is like “Isaac the bartender” on The Love Boat.
Wednesday
March 12, 2008 Imaho in OmahaWell, now that I have your attention, hi from Nebraska! Thanks to all of you who are reading my blog, which I can tell from the many e-mails I’ve received. First, yes, I do have the most fun job ever and second, yes, there really were two awesome gay bars in Des Moines. The consensus among my Merry Band of Revelers is that no one remembers the name of the first bar, but the second one was called “Blazing Saddles.” It was a blast, and if you’re ever in Des Moines I highly recommend it!
Friday
February 8, 2008 Get Yer Za-Za OutHey Y’all – The first day of the ASI Dallas Show was a good one, with lots of happy, friendly Texans and some awesome new products. My favorite? Selco’s new “Hardcore” watch line (see photo), which is hip, edgy and totally cool. After the show Christian Brandt, ASI’s executive director of catalog sales and my show “handler,” and I went out to dinner with Mark Hobbs from DeyRey Nuts and Nadine Panetti from PromoBiz at the sensationally swanky Hotel ZaZa. It was just awesome and it is definitely the place where the beautiful people congregate. Mark and Nadine are two of the industry’s pretty people and as a couple, they look like celebs. We should just merge their names together and call them “Mardine” — like Bennifer and Brangelina. (See photos)
Thursday
February 7, 2008 Michele Does Dallas!Filed under: ASI Shows, Travel Hey Y’all from Dallas, Texas on the first day of the ASI Show! I’ve been here since Tuesday, and spent that night catching up with the one and only Dan Townes, at the Palm. We have dinner there every year and we’ve become friendly with the general manager, Randy Hill, who is just the coolest guys and tolerates (and in fact often encourages) our bad behavior (because, when Dan and I are involved, there will be “incidents,” such as the one year when Dan hurled a pork chop two tables away to say hello to our friend Jay Donlin, the vice president of Visions/Awardcraft…). |
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