Now I'm In Nashville

Why, you ask? Because I'm at the Recourses seminar about Managing Creatives, held by David Baker every year. It's where creative directors from all over the country get together and find out that being a creative director and managing other creative people is about a whole lot more than who can be the cleverest of the cleverest.

But of course, you still want all the other creative directors you meet from Chicago and Montreal and Birmingham to think you are neat. I don't think I'm going to start by telling them how I am traveling alone this week (sans CEO Roy), which means not feeling embarrassed about getting not one, but two trashy gossip magazines (okay, one's a gossip magazine and one's a shopping magazine where you put those little stickers on the pages of stuff you want to buy, but really the stickers are really ads for like lip gloss or deodorant... now that's the cleverest of the cleverest).



Anyhow, traveling alone also means I have to make the front desk guys wave for my picture.



Or I can just wave at myself. This hotel is the Wyndham Union Station in downtown Nashville, and is very historic, having once been an actual train station (which I sort of deduced but was confirmed by all the train prints in the hallways).



Speaking of prints, Nashville is also home to Hatch Show Print, which is widely famous for its old-school printing press posters that have advertised shows for musicians from Elvis to just about everybody. I walked by the window and snapped this shot, realizing I was being checked out as well. They were already closed for the day, so I didn't get to go in, but they had tons of prints in the windows.



The problem with staying in a beautiful historic hotel that used to be a train station, is that the trains still run right by it. Like late at night. (Which granted, for me is like 10pm).

But I'm already one day into the seminar, not yawning but very engaged. David Baker actually invited me and another creative director, Ryan, from CloserLook to be part of the seminar as an example of "how to" be a good creative director, and for others to ask us questions and find out what we're doing that seems to be working really well for our agencies.



The second day is going to be a tad more of intense because the two of us are apparently going to be interviewed by David up on stage in front of everyone, I'm imagining like Inside The Actors Studio style. So hopefully I'll have gotten a good night's sleep by the time you're reading this and not have worried about looking like a spaz up there.

But if the midnight train (okay, 10pm train) doesn't cut me a break, I can always break out my ad-slash-stickers and start tagging "ten ways to wear the same belt this spring." Or maybe instead of answering the creative director Q&A with humorous but insightful anecdotes, I could just hold up a petal pink "yes!" sticker on one finger for "have you ever wanted to go back to doing instead of managing?" Or a mauvish pink "maybe?" sticker for "are you too decisive or not decisive enough?" I wonder what just holding up a picture of Katie Holmes detoxing would say about my management style? Would a torn out page of the octo-babies mom say I'm a multitasker? A photo of "who wore it best" show my discernment?

Think I'm getting a little loopy? It's because it's almost 10pm. Time to shut off the laptop, turn out the lights, and start listening for the little engine who could.