28 Things I Wish I'd Known....

A friend just emailed a link to this terrific blog post about what you need to know before traveling to foreign countries.

Admittedly, I don't totally agree with his observations about health care or medicine, nor do I agree that euros have replaced the U.S. dollar as the international standard (based on recent experience), but beyond that, he makes a lot of really solid points.

Happy reading. And happier traveling.

Scotch Watch: Chapter 4

Dear Westin,

Consider this glass of five-day-old melted ice with a lemon twist a token of the fine job housekeeping has done in creating a lovely ambiance to wish me well each morning and welcome me home each night. While most upscale hotels would whisk this away—out of sight, out of mind—apparently you do not, feeling there’s some value to keeping this reminder of my first hour on the property fresh (relatively speaking) in my mind and in those of the neighboring guests.

It’s an odd sentiment, admittedly, but one I’ll remember forever.

Trust me on that.

Regards,

Cinda Baxter
Gold Preferred Starwood Member

My Favorite Chef

If you know me, you also know who my all time favorite chef is: Gavin Kaysen, the nicest man in whites.

Years ago, I met Gavin and his wife Linda as they were planning their wedding in Minneapolis. Throughout the process, Gavin’s mother-—Nancy-—and I became dear friends, which has since extended to her husband, David, and obviously, the happy couple.

Well, Gavin’s a bit of a wunderkind. Actually, he’s one of the most celebrated chefs under thirty years old in the country (possibly on the planet). His current stint is as executive chef at Cafe Boulud in New York, and lemme tell ya, he’s kickin’ it there, big time. Since Wednesday night was the one time Linda and I could get our calendars to match, we decided to meet there for dinner.

And what a dinner it was.

Gavin treated us to a chef’s tasting menu, several courses long, with paired wines for each. The food was divine (as in “If I die now, I’ll die happy”), the service stellar, and the company lovely. At the end of service, the three of us sat around, catching up on the latest buzz from New York and from home, reflecting on how extraordinary their lives are right now.

If there are two people more deserving of all this adulation—and more humble about getting it—I’d like to know who they are. Nancy and David raised a cool son who found a cool wife and they’re living a cool life.

Now that’s a God thing if ever there was one.

NSS Show Notes

For those of you wondering if I have show notes to share, I do—but they’re exclusively for consult clients and RetailSpeaks members.

Sorry for any disappointment those of you not on the guest list might feel.... If you’re an independent retailer interested in such things, however, check out the link on the right for RetailSpeaks. Might just be the best show tip of all.

NSS Undressed

I’ve joked for years that I’m always the last retailer off the show floor—could count on me still writing an order somewhere (usually in the Constance Kay booth) when the a/c turned off, the lights came down, and the carpets began to roll up...literally.

So, of course, it made complete sense I was sitting in the conference area of the Epson booth, enjoying a debrief with Patrick and the lead engineers from Japan an hour after show closed. While walls were deconstructing around us, we shared the things we’d seen, the possibilities ahead (can’t tell you what those are, sorry), and the projects that could be launched most quickly.

Suffice it to say, when things begin rolling out this next couple of years, you’re gonna be happy.

Happy happy.

I come away from this show feeling really good about where we’re all headed—in part because the last blast of enthusiastic desperation at my final NSS Advisory Board meeting several years ago is now bearing fruit in a big way. Laurie Robinson, Kelly Bristol, and later Patti Stracher, all listened to my pleas about needing technology at this show, understood the reasoning, and fought to bring it in. What Epson talks about today will completely change our industry tomorrow...and I mean that, with total sincerity.

It’s time. We’re there. And I couldn’t be happier to be part of the process.

NSS: Final day

This show went fast—really fast. Could be because I was in perpetual motion the entire time, but still...went just plain fast.

Today’s stint in the Epson booth was the best by far—began with a consulting appointment with two really neat women from Birmingham, Alabama who “get” how important it is to turn their print operation into a profit center. During our appointment, Patti Stracher and Kelly Bristol (NSS Show Manager and Asst. Manager, respectively...and both dear friends) stopped in to chat. After the consult ended, Linda invited me to sit in on a meeting with the largest US paper distributor in the industry to chat about “things to come.” Later, as I was slipping out of the booth for one last run at the show (which, at this point, I’ve accepted I won’t finish), Caroline—Epson’s media maven—pulled me aside so she could introduce me to Martha Stewart Magazine’s editor, Darcy Miller.

Funny thing is that I actually met Darcy several years ago, although I certainly didn’t expect her to remember it. One Thursday, after the show had ended, Mom and I had a private appointment and lunch with a couture engraver named Nancy Sharon Collins. As soon as we arrived at her studio, Nancy apologized profusely, explaining that another woman needed to see the line too, but could only come in while we were there. If it was okay with us, she’d work with the four of us together, which of course, was fine with us.

So in walks Darcy and her mother. Turns out she (Darcy) was engaged, looking for wedding invitations, so we all chatted and noshed over some of the most exquisite engraved monograms and designs on earth. Very fun. Very laid back. Very mother/daughter for all of us.

Very small world, yet again.

And yes, Darcy remembered.

Scotch Watch: Chapter 3

Ick.

Ick, ick, ick.

The empty scotch glass with the lemon twist has now been here fermenting in front of my door for three days.

Housekeeping has been here at least that many times.

What gives, Westin?