Filling Up Time

Michaela and I went to a function tonight with great city views.

“It’s in the East Village at the Manhattan Bar”, I told her in the cab on the way, noting the oblique reference to “Sydney as Australia’s answer to New York”.

Actually I really hate that stuff. “New York-style loft”. “New York-style bar”. WTF does that mean, other than “expensive and slightly pretentious?”.

Thankfully it doesn’t mean that at the East Village Pub in East Sydney which has a nice vibe to it, friendly staff, and a great rooftop area with pretty spectacular views.

We were at a “meeja” function, which was interesting enough. And while one of the people who spoke did so off-the-cuff and with passion, another spoke less eloquently, reading three pages of a prepared speech.

I accept that some people are gifted speech makers and others are not. But I’ve been to a lot of functions and these kind of events lately, where someone making a speech has managed to bore the pants off everyone because “they’ve filled the space”.

And by that I mean, they’ve written a speech that goes for 1000 words, because “it looks right on paper”.

It’s kinda like the “Microsoft Outlook” syndrome that drives me spare. I remember a time when a meeting went for whatever length the agenda demanded. Now it seems meetings going for 1 or 2 hours (because it’s blocked out that way in electronic calendars), and the agenda is thus made to fit the time, not the other way around. And in some circles, that obviously means morning or afternoon tea is served as well.

I guess this blog is a bit “Microsoft Outlook” too. I say something every day, even if I’ve got nothing to say :)

I don’t mean to sound like a “grumpy old man”, but it just seems to me the modern way of doing business has had both good and bad things associated with it. On the good side, everything is seemingly more efficient and information should be processed more quickly. On the bad side, it seems, the “template approach” means meetings, speeches, and such go on for longer than they should.

But anyway, we had a nice evening and chatted to some lovely people.

And of course, we were cool and groovy and “very New York”.