New York State of Mind

For the past two days I have been in New York for business. Yesterday was a grind-it-out not much of interest to anyone but me day but Wednesday was spent in the city and there were a couple of things I thought I'd share.

I was in the city because I had a couple of people I was supposed to meet. They weren't customers but either consultants who had clients I may be able to help or people who work for companies whose products are complimentary to my own. There was an industry related trade show at the Javits Center - so we decided to meet there.

My day was spent meeting with people, making phone calls, sending emails (thank you Blackberry) and waking around the trade show floor trying to spot potential customers or companies I could network with. By 3:00 I was getting pretty beat.

Most trade shows now feature booth space dedicated to massages. Sometimes these massage spaces are sponsored by a company. For example - at the NAB show in Las Vegas a company had brought in these foot massaging machines that were incredible. You would sit down and just be loving the foot massage after a long day of either standing at a booth or walking the show floor. The benefit for the sponsoring company was the fact that while you were sitting there getting a foot massage a sales guy from the sponsoring company could come over and talk to you to see if you were a potential customer. What a great idea. I bet everyone who walked the show floor stopped at that booth.

Sometimes the massage areas are not sponsored. You want a massage you pay for it. That was the case at this show.

It was $10 for a ten-minute massage they called "the re-energizer". By 3:00 I was ready to be re-energized. There were three people giving massages - an Oriental woman, a black girl and a black guy. Of course I got the guy.

You kneel into the massage chair and put your face into a donut-shaped cushion hygenically protected by a specially shaped piece of paper. Much like the specialy shaped pieces of paper you find in public restrooms. While I was thinking about resting my face against a toilet bowl seat the massage began.

At first I was thinking, "What's so good about........ooohhhh..."

The guy had begun putting pressure on my top vertebrae and then just worked his way slowly down the spine. It was as if he was forcing all my stress slowly right out my ass. When he was done with my back he did each arm and my neck. I was so relaxed that the only thing keeping me awake was a slight fear that I would start drooling if I dozed off.

When he was done I was completely relaxed. Best $10 I ever spent.

I went to meet a consultant friend of mine who has more industry contacts than anyone I know and who I was supposed to go to dinner with. We met up at the entrance to the show and he asked, "What did you think of the show?"

"It was OK. The best thing was that I got a massage from a black guy."

Good thing he understands my sense of humor.

Well - that's enough for now. In part two I'll talk about attending the first ever Xtreme Video Fest.