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The Drayton Bird Blog – At last! I got something right in Washington

Ham on 02 23, 2009

If you were thinking with some relief that you hadn’t heard a peep out of me, your good times are over. I’m back.

I came over to Washington where an absurdly clever and unfeasibly successful young man called Yanik Silver is holding an event which has been attended by about 400 people.

He and I have corresponded in a desultory way for a couple of years, always meaning to meet but never managing it, so he suggested I pop along to his big thrash. Then yesterday afternoon he suddenly suggested I do a talk, which I did this morning to a somewhat hungover audience.

When I finished they were so relieved they stood up and applauded. This was deeply satisfying, because the last two times I’ve been here things have not gone quite according to plan. Once someone arranged for me to speak but neglected (as far as I can recall) to invite anyone, so I found myself in a hotel room holding my dick, as the saying goes.

The other time I was invited to an event at the White House and got so drunk over lunch I never made it. Brilliant, Drayton.

Besides having a very forgiving audience, Yanik has had some very good speakers here. One, Bob Parsone, founded Godaddy.com – who run some of the best TV spots you can imagine every year during the Superbowl. Check one out: http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2006/01/godaddy-girl-superbowl-tv-commercials/. If you don’t like it, you’ve had a sense of humour bypass.

Yanik’s event has been themed around James Bond; I think my job was to show what happens if you have ten vodka martinis – shaken but not stirred – in quick succession and have to talk the next morning at 8 a. m.

Just kidding – and for those of you I met today who said nice things afterwards – thanks. It was a pleasure.

So that’s my news for today. Tomorrow evening, back to New York. Funnily enough, my old boss David Ogilvy worked in the secret service with Ian Fleming who wrote the Bond books, but who sounds as though he was a bit of a shit.

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