Registration at The Clios
May 15|2004

Registering at the Clios was easy. I got the normal Oreamuwhat? But that’s’ normal. After getting bags and bags of free stuff (which the developing nation side of me loooves) my last entry became reality. In 1.1 minutes I had befriended Alex, a Brazilian musician who works in a commercial music production house in L.A. In 2.3 minutes I heard the name “Hey Ignacio” from a bunch of VCU Adcenter people I had met in Richmond when I was giving a speech two weeks ago and in 3.2 minutes Alex met some Italian creatives from Leo Burnett Milan whom he had worked with before.

Holly shit Batman. Is this a small word or what? Nice atmosphere, very very distant from the cold Toronto I’ll just pretend you are not there winter in the elevator on a Monday morning.

So we went in Alex’s rented Mustang convertible around Miami Beach to get something to eat. It’s hot, it’s fun, it’s nice in here. Every single person in this city speaks Spanish, so I’m in my blood.

So we had lunch and talked about advertising etc. Carlo, one of the Italian creatives wants to move to NY, he thinks there is more money there. I told him to really think about it, especially when he told me about his 2 months of vacation a year (he’s a freelancer on contract). They almost died when I told them we had 10 days a year. Man we love working in Canada don’t we?

I asked them my famous do you know the work from Canada? No answer. Alex is responsible for making the “I’m loving it” tunes for McD’s. I thought they would immediately recognize the Budlight Insitute stuff at least. Nothing. Never heard of it. Just another sign that we have a lot of work to do in Canada.

So I’m back in my hotel, there’s a lot of fancy dresses and tuxes downstairs. I’d better get ready. I’ll take my camera and report back to you as soon as I can.

Cliff “where’s the beef” Freeman is going to be inducted into the hall of fame. I’ll find out what it is you need to get in so you can do the same one day. Over and out.