I arrived at my hotel, the Holiday Inn LAX, just before 10 PM and was unpacking my bag by 10:05. I grabbed my speech notes, headed to the lounge, and reviewed my notes and slides over a pint of Sierra Nevada pale ale. Feeling tired, I headed back to my room, checked some web news sites, talked with the front desk to set up a 6:00 AM wake up call, and I drifted off to sleep.

I got up just after my wake-up call and checked my email and news sites. Dammit, the world just changes too fast! I made some quick additions, deletion and modifications to my speech. Showered and raring to go, I headed down to Manhattan Beach, where I would hook up with Wendell and his wonderful wife Madelyn and head off to the LA Friendship Center, where I’d be giving my talk. We picked up Tom Hastings, a friend of the Harter’s on the way. Tom and I talked in the back of the van on the way to the Center. He used to work for Xerox as a software designer and we talked about my previous career plus the fact that Diane, Jim, Barbara and Bob all worked for Xerox at one time or another! Small world. Even cooler was that when he was at MIT, his freshman thesis advisor was the one and only Marvin Minsky. Too cool if you’re an AI geek!

Anyway, we arrived at the Center, set up the stage, my PowerBook, and whatnot and greeted people as they arrived. It was fabulous to meet in person all the leaders and activists who I’d spoken with over the phone since 2004! Most were really great people. The morning was filled by Jim Stewart, who talked about climate change and what individuals could do. I very nice catered lunch (which I got about 2 seconds to visit) happened next. I went on at 12:55 (about 5 minutes later) after a truly wonderful introduction by Wendell. I spoke until about 2:30 and then took questions until 2:40.

I have to tell you, I prepped VERY hard for this speech and covered a great deal of ground. As usual, I do enjoy doing these public speaking events, but I tend to “zone out”. I remember Wendell’s introduction and I remember thanking people after the Q&A ended. But, the rest of it? No clue. Happily, many people came up afterwards to tell me that I gave a great speech, lots of information, well organized, well presented. Wow, it’s amazing my head fit out the door!

Afterwards, we broke down our stuff and headed back to Wendell’s. I had a root beer and chatted with Madelyn and Wendell. Then, I headed back to my hotel, around 5-ish in the afternoon.