Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Atlanta Update

We had over 17,000 people at the conference which ended this afternoon. Forgot to mention that our entertainment Sunday night was the Georgia Aquarium. We took it over Sunday night and hosted a party for 5,000 of the attendees. Unfortunately, we weren't able to accommodate everyone, but there are always enough parties to go around during our conferences. Vendors set up numerous dinners and other events for their customers, actual and prospective.

Tuesday's night concert was John Mayer. John is a much more accomplished guitarist than I had thought. He failed to interact with the audience who was down in the aisles dancing and cheering for him. He had to little to say other than, "Are you having a good time?" He said that about three times. He did mention that he used to live in Atlanta and loved the city. His band members did not interact very much with each other either. One of the vendors had given out glow necklaces to the attendees. During the concert, people in the stands connected their necklaces so that there was a long glow rope twisting throughout the entire Phillips Arena. It even draped down from the higher level seats down to the lower level seats and looped around the entire stadium. John didn't mention this until during his encore when he said it showed we were a symbiotic corporation. I don't think he got the purpose of the event/conference.

Because I'm one of the volunteer leaders, I was able to get floor seats for my group. We had a good time, but it wasn't one of the better concerts I've gone to. I heard a lot of people, however, raving about how good the concert was. And one of my group chairs was in heaven because she is such a JM fan.

Now, I've got to get back to work and then head home Thursday afternoon.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope you survive Hotatlanta and thanks for the comments...it's going to be a learning process but good things come to those who wait. I hope!

Sully

Ahvarahn said...

That lack of rapport with the audience reminds me of Van Morrison, but JM is a damn fine guitarist, you are right. Young bloke too. I guess it was only about 5 years ago he was relatively unknown and lately he's on the cover of Rolling Stone.

colleen m said...

Hey you left out the best part of the review you sent me privately ;) lol

Safe travels!!!!!

Cathy with a C said...

Here's the comments that Colleen referred to:

He looked wasted and made really weird faces while playing - kind of like he was having an orgasm. His eyes would flutter and roll back in his head so you only saw the whites of his eyes.

It was strange how he ran his show. No conversation or very little; lights went out on stage between songs; no banter among the band members; drummer played with his eyes shut - also looked like he was having an orgasm. They were seemed so wasted or so into their music they didn't want anyone else.

Gary said...

Hi Cathy, thank you for best wishes.

I play every now and again. My Dad passed on a rather amazing classic golf swing to me. He thinks it has been wasted on someone like me though who does not have the passion for the game. I enjoy it from hole 1 to say 12, then I get bored and tired and start duffing.

I once busted the heads off 2 clubs when I was playing on a course in Cancun. They dubbed me gorilla grip.. They were clubhouse clubs and we think they had tampered with them so they could try and charge me $60 each to replace them. Come to think of it, I was definitely getting my money's worth out of them. Ha!

Have a great weekend.

Metalchick said...

I'm glad you had a good time at the concert anyway, but I wouldn't have gone cause I'm not a fan of John Mayer.
It sounds to me like he doesn't know what it's like to be a fan, Interacting with the audience is part of a concert. It doesn't matter how good you play, if you can't connect with your fans, then you're not going to last very long.

I also hope you survive Atlanta and make it home OK.

Nabonidus said...

It's interesting because I said the same things myself when I'd seen some footage of him live in concert,
he was a better guitarist than I'd thought! But also not -so -in -touch with his audience! You are so right!:)

Have a good week, thanks again, you know what I mean. xoxoLisa