Scheduling a number of people for a face-to-face meeting is getting tougher and tougher. And the cost of traveling to a client’s location to make a presentation is also on the rise. There’s little more disappointing than getting there and finding that half the people scheduled have been called away by other priorities. Of course nothing beats face-to-face for making the deal, which is why recession or not, business people continue to travel to their customers in order to close escrow. But for introductory presentations intended to gauge interest, my partners and I are finding web-based presentations are a pretty good way of making a pitch and seeing if there is interest to pursue further.

We’ve tested a number of on-line presentation services such as Go-To-Meeting, SlideRocket, and WebEx. They’re all very good with a huge portfolio of options and tools such as highlighters, cursor swapping, etc. But regular readers know that I’m a “less-is-more” kind of person, as I find that 99% of options (in anything) usually distract from the task at hand.

Up until now, the sheer complexity of setting up an on-line presentation has kept me from using such a service at anytime other than a real emergency. Not to mention the cost…all of the services named above ask  for pretty hefty monthly subscription fees (around $50) regardless of frequency of use. Since we do about 6 of these types of presentations a year, an annual subscription of $600 seems rather steep.

Then there’s Glance. We’ve just started using this ultra-simple, uber-fast, and inexpensive service ($9.95 per use) and really love it. It offers virtually nothing…and that’s it’s greatest strength. You email the meeting attendees your Glance URL, they click on it and are immediately connected to your presentation. Whatever you see on your computer screen, they see. For audio, we find the simplest way is to just call in on a land-line and get put on speakerphone at the client’s location. That’s it. Worth a look if you are in a situation where you would like someone else to share your screen.

I’ve been working to make my travel shave kit TSA and airline proof. I hate those 1 liter plastic bags in which you have to shove your liquids and creams and keep them separate from the rest of your gear. One of the genuinely stupidest pseduo-security measures that I have ever witnessed (and there are many…like making the poor 80-year old grandpa who can barely bend down, take off his shoes and belt).

In response I have moved to solids, wherever possible. MR GLO soap for the face, a shave stick instead of cream, solid deodorant, etc. Now if they could just come up with a solid toothpaste, face moisturizer, and cologne….I’d be bulletproof!

The shave stick (D.R. Harris) and the Simpson Wee Scot are great offsets to the Fusion…they give you the illusion that you really are getting a gourmet shave. And the Fusion, in its defense is pretty appropriate to shaving in those hotel showers without a mirror and nowhere to lay your stuff. A lot safer, faster, and fool-proof in unpredictable settings.

From the American Airlines Admniral’s Lounge in Miama (hey, I didn’t know boats flew!).

When I was a corporate person, I routinely traveled all over the world and stayed in some of the best hotels. But when I became an entrepreneur some 15 years ago and had to “live or die by the sword” as the expression goes, I became far more intimately aware of the value of money…since I had none.

I went from Hilton to Hellhole almost overnight and I must confess it was quite a shock to the system. That early entrepereneurial experience has never left me, even today when I stay in some of those same “best” hotels on behalf of clients, I am acutely aware of the value of money and won’t hesitate to balk at the outrageous charges at most of these clip-joints…even though it’s not even my damned money!

Checking out of the Trump Beach Resort in Sunny Isles, Florida, this morning, I see a charge of $19.95 for a 9-minute phone call to Montreal. I almost blew a gasket. In today’s 5-cent a minute competitive landscape, a charge of $19.95 is like a sign saying “STUPID” posted on my forehead. I confronted the manager and he gave the usual song-and-dance about switchboard costs, etc. Bullshit! This is about the never ending stream of hidden uber-charges that these palaces of pretention thrive on. How come the Holiday Inn Express can give me free internet and a continental breakfast for $89, and you have to charge me for farting while in your establshment?

Anyway, cowards that they are, they quickly recinded the phone charges and the internet fee ($19.95 for a “basic” service that was so slow I could hardly get my email). If they really believed their shit, they would have stuck to their guns.

But here’s the rub….I bet 90% of the corporate people there would barely glance at the bill, and 99% wouldn’t challenge the charges. God help you if you ever work for me!

Yes, entrepreneurs really do get Darwin.

And yes, Dear, I’ll get off my soap box now. Just a little necessary catharsis from all the bullshit of business so I can enjoy what’s left of my week-end.

Off to Florida for a couple of days, facilitating a conference on health care for a client. Sunny Isles, at the Trump hotel. Funny, didn’t go to Florida (Disney World doesn’t count, right?) for 56 years and then twice in a month. This promises to be very shi-shi….right up my alley…should look good in my elastic-waistband shorts and Alden cordovan brogues!

Devout Muslims are encouraged to make the Haj to Mecca at least once in their lives. But where does a devout Canadian foodie go for his holiest pilgrimage in his own country? The Cheese Boutique in Toronto, that’s where! I first learned about the Cheese Boutique from Peter Minakis, the genius behind Kalofagas (www.kalofagas.ca), a blog site dedicated to fine food, especially Greek. I won’t bother trying to better Peter’s pictures of the Cheese Boutique, which you can see here. Unfortunately, as good a photographer as Peter is, his pictures cannot do justice to what should rightly be a religious shrine to Foodism.

Mapquest reveals a curious route into a basically residential area where one would not imagine any kind of business. As you turn the corner onto Ripley Avenue, looking for #45, your thoughts are likely around the vagaries of GPS and computer mapping, which sometimes lead one astray.  But it turns out that Ripley Avenue is an anomaly; a strange little street of what appear to be small manufacturers, machine shops, and garages. Suddenly, you’re almost on top of #45…a rambling building with a somewhat tacky sign up front; an image of a mouse in artist’s garb standing in front of a cheese wedge.

Wander inside and you find room after room stocked from floor to ceiling with the most exotic imaginable comestibles. Pastas of every variety, scores of balsamic vinegars, olive oils I’ve never even heard of, including many single varietals. Bottarga (dried fish roe)? Of course, two kinds, even the rare and highly prized tuna. The clerks are maniacs, trained in the infinitesimal minutiae of their craft. Ask for advice and you will surely be steered to a new version of culinary Heaven. The high point is the aging room where they age cheeses an additional 2, 4, 6, years or more.

I bought two kinds of bottarga, plus a selection of hyper-aged raw-milk cheeses; one Gouda from Thunder Bay aged 4 additional years, and a Quebec cheddar aged an extra six! Two bottles of organic olive oil from Greece, as well as Greek balsamic vinegar (wonderful!), and a couple of hand-made pastas rounded off the mix. Oh, yeah, and the home-made sausages…how could I forget those?.

I wrote to thank Peter for the heads-up….’cause I really need yet another place to drop $500 on food in 15 minutes.

I only ever heard of two kinds of Spot….one was a dog who ran with Dick and Jane….and the other usually manged to find its way onto my best tie. But there’s a new kind of Spot and it seems like a pretty cool device, especially if you hike, ski, sail, or drive off-road. In fact, it sounds like something that might be good to have on you at all times, just in case of any emergency where there are no other people around.

I’m seriously going to look into getting one. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”.

Many of you will be familiar with the term “nanny state”, which refers to what many see as excessive, institutionalized government intervention for the protection (hence the term “nanny”) of the people against perceived threats, especially in the areas of health, culture, and the environment, among others.

Strangely enough, while the nanny state operates at a macro level, its effects appear to funnel down to the individual level, a condition I call the “ninny state”. This condition appears to intensify as one gets older (perhaps as the prospect of death looms larger), and also appears to be more prevalent in women (based on my purely personal observations, YMMV), perhaps because they are by nature more caring, protective, and nurturing (whew!, talk about the ninny state…just the fact that I felt compelled to qualify my statement is a perfect example).

The ninny state is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with doing things correctly. Here are a few examples:

“Oh my, what a beautiful sunset! Be careful not to look at the sun too long, it might damage your retinas. We should have brought extra-dark sunglasses”.

“I don’t think we can just wander into the hotel lobby like that….isn’t it just for paying guests?”.

“Make sure to put on lots of sunscreen, skin cancer you know!”.

“I don’t eat large fish…too much mercury”.

“Close the balcony door, the air-conditioning is on and you’ll waste electricity” [It was open for all of 30 seconds as I tried to get a whiff of fresh air, Heaven forbid]

“I love the house, but there’s no way I’d live anywhere near there, too many power lines nearby”

“Isn’t this a great cereal…loaded with Omega-3’s and fiber”.

Men, by and large, appear to be more resistant to the ninny state, fueled perhaps by an innate sense of devil-may-care, poor judgment, alcohol, machismo, and other qualities antithetical to the very nature of the ninny state.

My own philosophy on the topic is: “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission….now leave me the f%*k alone”.

A few images from the seaside.

You’d think that photographing B&W in a lush swamp is pretty tough because of the tonal blending, but here’s proof positive from my wife’s cousin Dick that it can be done quite successfully. Evocative of a somewhat eerie feeling IMHO. Almost expect Hanzel and Gretel to be seen walking on the boardwalk. Taken at Big Cypress Bend in the Everglades.

No blogging today, as the day was spent traveling to Naples, Florida for two weeks belated Summer vacation. Hopefully some pics tomorrow.