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Chip Conley at the CommonWealth Club

November 28, 2007 By Leave a Comment
chip+connelly+006 Chip Conley at the CommonWealth Club

Last night we had the good fortune to catch Chip Conley speak at the Commonwealth Club.
The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum, bringing together its more than 18,000 members for over 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy. If you are in San Francisco it is a great place to see speakers of all types.

Carrie and I arrived early to grab a glasss of wine served by the staff of the Commonwealth Club. Carrie and her family have been in the hotel business forever (see history) and we also arrived early to snag a couple of front row seats. Chip came in and we chatted with him for a bit which was really fun start to the evening. I have to say he is a really nice, engaging guy.

Chip was speaking about his book PEAK and his experiences starting and running Joie de Vivre Hotels.

His philosophy is based on Andrew Maslows Hierarchy of Needs which is really interesting stuff. I think it can be applied to any business and I think if you are looking for a book this Christmas season for a friend this might be it.

chip+connelly+003 Chip Conley at the CommonWealth Club

Some notes I took from the speech:

Joie de Vivre hotels are developed keeping five expressive adjectives — and at least one popular magazine — in mind. This method of making an emotional connection with guests by catering to a psychographic rather than a demographic profile. For example the Rolling Stone -inspired Phoenix (funky, hip, young-at-heart, irreverent, and adventurous), to the Real Simple meets Dwell -inspired Hotel Vitale (urbane, revitalizing, modern, fresh, nurturing), to the literary New Yorker -inspired Hotel Rex (worldly, sophisticated, literate, artistic, and clever); each property speaks to a particular client and possesses its own dynamic personality.

Employees in the hospitality industry are historically hard to keep around. Chip and his executive staff like to find out what the employees with the task driven jobs think about their jobs and how to make it a calling for them. Basically what is the impact of the job they do, how does it effect others? How to make that job a calling so it is enriching. Something we all have to look at in our own jobs sometimes. Brings up a question –do you feel your job is a calling?

Loyalty- how to make loyalty your culture with customers, employees and investors.

fireplace Chip Conley at the CommonWealth Club

All in all it was a great evening and we learned something. Plus, we had nice hot soup waiting for us at home. We curled up with PEAK on the couch and enjoyed a roaring fire.

Chip Conley at the CommonWealth Club

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Sigmund the Sea Monster is a Genius

August 17, 2007 By 2 Comments

I am 42 as of last month. We had a dinner party and friends visiting from Las Vegas last weekend. Of course they are from Vegas so we had to do some special things. We pulled out all the stop stuff for them. Cloth Napkins, lemon pledge on the wood items in the house and a total vacuum. You know the drill.

Our friends Corey and Michael were also invited. They are getting married in Vancouver in a couple of weeks so that was a fun conversation. Seems homosexuals cannot get married in the USA. Maybe they can I am not sure totally. I have heard them doing it in San Francisco, but I think its in limbo. Corey and Michel have been together for 22 years. Longer than any other of our friends. Carrie and I are heading up to the wedding which should be fun. Carrie has never been to Canada so I hope they really do something nice for her. Not Corey and Michael, the Canadians.

The great thing about the group is we are all the same age 40-44 so as the wine bottles piled up we started talking about old shows we watched as kids. And with YouTube we could actually watch them. We all had a great time reliving the old shows. We were all amazed how lifelike Sigmund of Sigmund the Sea Monster was. Did you know the actual job of a Sea Monster is to scare humans? The whole premise of the show was Sigmund didn’t want to scare humans. He was a great sea monster, I alwasy wanted to havea Sea monster in my fort. Actually I wanted a fort also.

The innuendos, the laugh track, the acting, shaking the camera for an earthquake, Sleestacks, Drooper, Fleagle, Chakka. How a routine expedition with your kids can go so so wrong! Dare I say this was genius. If you aren’t around 40 I think you may think this post is stupid. But I say you are stupid if you say that. Basically I am rubber and you are glue baby!

Enjoy the memories.

Banana Splits

Land of the Lost

Do you remember this commercial? I do.

Sigmund the Sea Monster is a Genius

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Making a Killing in the Park

July 20, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Last night we saw the San Francisco Mime Troupe was playing in the local Park. We packed a cooler with some goodies our camping chairs and shhhh a bottle of wine and walked down and watched the show. We both had a really great time. They brought in their portable stage and sounds system and did there show. It was called Making a Killing. All about the War in Iraq. Very clever writing.

Here is a little blurb about the company from their website:

The San Francisco Mime Troupe does not do pantomime. We mean ‘mime’ in the ancient sense: to mimic. We are satirists, seeking to make you laugh at the absurdities of contemporary life and at the same time, see their causes. We’ve done shows about most of the burning issues of our time, generally shows that debunked the official story. We perform everywhere from public parks to palaces of culture, aiming to reach the broadest possible audience.

 dd mime Making a Killing in the Park
Dolores Park, 2003

Our artistic history has been a series of experiments with popular theater forms. Founding director R.G. Davis began in 1959 with avant-garde performance events in lofts and basements; when he discovered commedia dell’arte (Italian Renaissance marketplace comedy) he began a nearly 40-year tradition of free shows in the parks. Since becoming a collective in l970, we have done melodramas, spy thrillers, musical comedies, epic histories, sitcoms, cartoon epics. Our trademark style draws from all these genres and is based on their common elements: strong story line, avowed point of view, larger-than-life characters, fantasy, live music.

IMG 0951 Making a Killing in the Park
My date for the show.

IMG 0947 Making a Killing in the Park
Dick Cheney and Condy Rice.

Making a Killing in the Park

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Events

January 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment

bloggslogo Events

As this is a “Events & Media blog” for Grass Shack Events & Media we have been known to show our successes with clients, fun resources and things we found interesting on the Internet. This past weekend was a reminder of how short life is and things can be put in perspective quickly.
This past weekend we had to put one of our dogs to sleep. he was sick and it was terminal. His name was bear and he was a great guy. We spent a ton of time agonizing over what to do. but putting him to sleep was the best answer. So bear had a large steak dinner and breakfast with our other two dogs. The whole family went to the vet and the kind doctor over dosed bear on Anestassia. We told hm want a good dog he was as he slipped away. It was really hard on everyone.
As we left the vet I received a call on my cell phone our vacation rental we have been working away on for the last 2 years had 2 pipes break in the ceiling and it fell in and filled the whole house with water. A complete loss.
We got in our car stunned and drove up to Coloma where the house is. As we got on the highway a truck cut in front of us and a large rock flew up and cracked the windshield of our new Toyota Prius. We all broke out in laughter as the tears finally ran out.

So in closing, all sorts of events happen. Sometimes you can prepare and sometimes shit just happens. Just love your whole family like crazy and carry lots and lots of insurance. We do.

Events

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