Of course the same time that I'm doing this so is everyone else in the room there to work and not party. It's easy to tell who is who. The party people are drinking, eating, dancing and laughing. The working people are doing these things too except in a more subdued and calculated manner. We have one eye always searching for who we're going to talk with next.
The biggest and best of such events is the Savannah Chamber of Commerce's annual Savannah Day In Atlanta kicking off the beginning of the Georgia Legislative Assembly. A thousand people, mostly the city's business elite, wanna-be's, State Officials and a handful that I could never figure out why in the hell they were there crowded inside.
I'd show up a few minutes early, grab a glass of wine and dive into the crowd as though off a diving board into the deep end of the pool. Back and forth the long cavernous room I'd go, talking to this person or that. I rarely got around to eating and by the time things were winding down I was starving, soaked in sweat and ... satisfied.
I'd connected with who I needed and was walking away with either a commitment or the promise of a follow up meeting.
To celebrate, we'd find a quiet restaurant, order a bottle and meticulously review everything that had happened. Who would be followed up first? Who did we miss? What were the surprises and disappointments?
Later I'd go to the hotel bar and sit quietly with my thoughts, often satisfied by sometimes not. Late at night I'd stumble to my room and fall asleep so that I could get up and do it again the next morning.
This was a large part of my job for decades. I've worked rooms across the country and in Europe but the epicenters were always Washington, D.C. (once I kidnapped UGA, the mascot for the beloved University of Georgia and was the most popular person in the room. Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to get noticed), Atlanta (once I grabbed Governor Zell Miller by the arm and pulled him away from whoever he was talking to saying, "We need to talk. This is important." He had no idea who I was but he did get my elevator speech. Every time I saw him afterwards he told this story.) and Savannah (I once was sneaked into the State GOP meeting by carrying a case of Scotch with a homeless waitress friend. "What the hell are you doing here?" Mayor Susan Weiner yelled, "You're a liberal! I was escorted out by security.).
It was all intense and exhausting fun.
I was good at it.
The other night Sarah and I went on a date to the Holiday Hoedown, a bunch of bands we like were raising money for the needy. Three hundred people gathered in a cavernous hall. Beer, wine and cocktails flowed. Bar-b-que was served. Local celebrities wandered in.
And I didn't do anything. We stood in the back and enjoyed the music. A couple of friends sought us out. I saw one I wanted to say hello to so we did.
It was a nice night in such a setting and it makes me wonder about how much I've missed because of how hard I worked.
But I figure it will get easier. I can still work a room with the best of them if I have to. The thing is, at least for now, I don't have to.
