The Journey to SXSW.
Soon there will be hundreds of blogs about the SXSW conference. I thought it might make a change before the deluge begins to send a blog about the journey to the conference instead. I have just got to my hotel room after 25 hours travel and to my jet lagged brain 5 things stand out.
1. Much as I want to be loyal to my National Carrier it is clear certain staff are feeling and showing the effects of recent corporate developments. I know Mr Joyce has a lot on his plate right now and doesn’t really need another item for his to-do list but whatever the rights and wrongs of recent cost cutting measures its all a bit irrelevant if the in cabin service doesn’t stack up to the competition.
2. Why didn’t Redford get the Oscar for ‘All Is Lost’? Wow - what a film , what a performance.
3. I allowed myself one film (above) on this journey as for the rest of the time I was supposed to be writing a speech I have to give in Austin next week. Unfortunately I had a copy of Gillian Flynn’s ‘Gone Girl’ in my bag. ‘Couldn’t put it down’ might be a cliche but in this case it just happens to be literally true. 429 pages in and still no first line of my speech.
4. The obesity issue affecting America is very real. Looking at the ‘foreign nationals’ and ‘US citizens’ queues at immigration was like observing entry lines into some bizarre Little and Large convention. It appears a new acceptable norm for human shape is evolving over here - and it ain’t pretty.
5. Gotta love Texas. Trying to stay awake so I could chat to recently met colleagues from London at Dallas airport I made the rookie error of asking for a Macchiato from the Dunkin Donuts outlet by our departure gate. When asked to explain what that was I said ” a small black coffee please” only to get the reply “Honey this is Texas, we don’t do small anything”. Fabulous - but might go some way to explaining point 4.
Journey trivia aside, Austin is packed to the rafters with thousands of delegates hoping for an enlightening and inspiring week. Its a privilege to be here amongst it all - I can’t wait for it to start tomorrow.
Nigel Marsh
Chairman, The Leading Edge