glad it’s over, but glad to be a Republican 09/05/08
The Republican National Convention this past week was awesome. The thousands of man (and woman) hours put into the show were evident. I appreciate those staff and Republican officials who helped make it a great show for the American people.
This was my second Convention – in New York ‘04 I had the honor of serving as a volunteer driver for Lynne Cheney’s motorcade – and was the first time I went merely as a spectator / observer.
Being a volunteer has its perks. For example, I got to sit in the Vice President’s box each night of the Convention and on the final night of the President’s speech we got to meet / shake hands with Vice President Cheney and ride along in the motorcade. You also get some pretty amazing credentials that let you go whereever the heck you want to go.
This Convention, serving as a blogger / vlogger / phlogger / twitterer / observer was different given my previous experience, but still neat. One benefit was that we were able to operate on our own timeline, which for this past week meant working out of the Hotel Aloft during the day on client projects. Our access this trip was limited, but having had some pretty amazing experiences in 2004, I was OK with that. We still found a way to do what we needed to do when we needed to do it.
A few personal highlights:
- First and foremost, Sarah Palin really wowed me with her authenticity and John McCain’s continued leadership as a maverick willing to reform a broken Washington is heartening. It feels really, really, really good to be a Republican.
- I was really excited to hear all of the positive feedback about a site we launched in the days leading up to the Convention: RNC08.com. Countless reporters and Republicans throughout the country have pinged me that the site was helpful.
- I was pleased to be able to take Joe Mansour to the Convention. This was his first Convention and though we’re both in a state of recovery, I trust he had a great time. Conventions are special and something you never forget.
- Coincidence or not, we ended up pulling in quite a few new projects / clients over this past week. Of course, we like to hit the ground running so we spent a majority of the daylight hours (pre-Convention) working on Service Agreements, invoices, branding concepts, and effective modern outreach strategies.
- As a business owner with a few employees, I was really happy that work back in DC and on the road continued to happen though I was not physically in the office. Every serious business needs solid teammates to carry the ball forward at all times and my team did just that. That makes me smile.
- The Hotel Aloft, the latest in the Starwoods network, was really modern, reasonably priced, and fit me perfectly. It offered two essential ingredients: free bottled water and free Internet. You had to pay for everything else – my trial size toothpaste ran out early so I had to buy their products for $6 – but I’m OK with that.
- Connections / Networking. Indeed, met many new folks including top-shelf reporters, bloggers, and business colleagues that I’m looking forward to continuing the dialogue with. And, of course, I ran into many folks that see often, but not often enough.
All in all, it was a great time but I’m really glad it’s over.
I missed the team at DAG. I missed working in my office. And I missed my sweet pad in Logan Circle.
It’s good to be back home in our nation’s capitol with a renewed sense of pride for our Republican Party and a load of work to jump back into.
