In the Rose City

Tuesday AM I headed off for Portland OR full of optimism: A potential new client had agreed to take a very hot new resource at our company and I was flying out to seal the deal, as well as meet with a few other parties. The flight was packed and I was sandwiched between two generously proportioned gentlemen... at least it was an exit row, but it was not comfy.

By the time I hit my hotel, I got the news on my Blackberry: my resource wasn't available to me anymore, there was no deal (I'll spare you the politics). My meeting was canceled by the client (who had better things to do than meet with no resource on the table), and I had a few hours in the afternoon to walk around being angry.

I drove into downtown and soothed my nerves by browsing at Powell's world of books, which I've written about before: An amazing full city block of books. I even bought a couple of things, got some lunch, and walked off the stress. By late afternoon, I had come to see that it was in fact an ok decision, and the prospective client WAS understanding, so it's not a slammed door.

In the evening, I had a great dinner with an independent consultant who we've done work with, and compared notes on the market up here. I was surprised to see that I actually DO understand things up here, and that my read on a lot of the sites was correct. He did bring me one new contact who I'll be following up with. But more importantly, it was a great couple of hours of conversation and laughter with a complete stranger... who by the end of the night had become at least a good acquaintance. It was very fun. Just before bed, I was pleased to discover that the hotel bar had Laphroaig 15, so I was eased into sleep with a touch of Islay smoke.

As usual I snapped awake at 3am CST expecting Isaac to cry, but it was just the A/C unit.

I had another meeting this morning which got me another couple of leads to chase down, so in total, while I didn't get the one deal I was out here to get, I did get some great market intel, made a good connection, ate some good food, got some books, and generally had a good time. Now I'm in the WorldClub in PDX looking out over the concourse waiting to board my flight (and I got bumped to First Class to boot) so I'm feeling pretty GOOD about the trip now.

One fun thing: I left the GPS at home this time, and used a good old fashioned MAP: And it was actually fun to remember how to orient myself and pick up on where things are in relation to other things. I now have a much better mental map of Portland.

I can't wait to get home and see the family... especially after spending all that great time with them over the MemDay weekend (next post).