Dateline: Chateau Laurier, Ottawa Canada, 3 March 2005
Sat through some talks in the morning, then did my talk following lunch. Unusual for me, I had a very hard end-point to accommodate the security (I imagine) issues surrounding the 2:15 appearance of the American ambassador.
Nice big ballroom in this very beautiful and ornate Old World hotel in downtown Ottawa. About 300 in attendance. Got set up on podium with laptop, but talked from floor. Sat through lunch next to military head of Canadian forces, a four-star army guy. He was very amiable and we chatted for a bit. I ate the soup and then hit the head during the main course.
Thanks to a press award, I started at 1:20 and went right to 2:10, so no Q&A because the audience needed to migrate back to main conference hall to hear the U.S. ambassador's talk. I did, however, pass out a lot of cards and took a bunch in from people (uniform and civilian) who approached me right after the talk. I had to stay focused, because the danger is you will forget some of your equipment while you're meeting and greeting and simultaneously packing up your gear. So I have a firm routine of getting my clicker and USB clip first. Then my power cord with the cover for the input end. Then I unscrew the display adaptor, putting the plastic caps on both end. That all goes into a mesh bag and the bag goes into my roller luggage. Then I shut down the Mac and it goes in.
The talk went very well. I did a version I have never done before: the Core and Gap + A-to-Z System + Leviathan-SysAdmin split. Lotsa audience response and a big round of applause at the end. No cool souvenir though, just a pamphlet-like book.
When I was done, I ran my gear up to my room and then caught the tail end of Cellucci's talk (the ambassador). Then I started out on my walk to the Canadian Broadcast Network, armed with a map and sans hat, which was a big mistake, cause baby, it's cold outside!
Well, natural to my status as a visionary and map-focused perspective, I got the map turned upside down and got lost. So I did a very un-man thing, I asked a local and got it straight just in time to show up at the studio to get run upstairs to the room (after a quick head call) and get in the chair about 45 seconds before going on the air with CBC's David Gray. About 15 seconds before lights on, I was handed a piece of paper saying the subject was Canada's decision to pull out of the missile defense system.
So when the first question came, I quickly moved the discussion to the issue of postconflict stabilization and reconstruction, highlighting what I think is the serious growth potential for U.S.-Canadian security cooperation in shrinking the Gap. When probed again, I basically gave my blunt assessment of ballistic missile defense.
The interview ran about 5 minutes, and I performed unusually well considering I was just sitting in a room by myself, staring into a camera (Gray was in Calgary). I think I was just very warm from the talk, plus I had no time to get nervous in advance. So I was feeling very confident and breezed right through, aided in no small part by Gray's rather amiable style that allowed me to finish answers fully.
So I was in and out of the CBC in about 15 minutes. On the walk back to the hotel I dropped in a souvenir store and picked up all things maple: candy, chocolates, cookies and-ta da!-real syrup. Blew a quick $50 Canadian, and wasn't sure if that was a lot, because I can't remember which currency is more powerful right now.
Getting back to the hotel, I run the goodies upstairs, grab my Mac and head back into the conference, because the conference head asked me to appear on the last panel (once their trio of presentations was done) for the Q&A portion. At first, I got no questions, but then fielded the last two.
After suffering through the concluding comments of this seriously dumbass Canadian academic, who presented an idiotic analysis of U.S. national security since 9/11 (I came awfully close to letting my sotto voce "bullshits" get loud enough for some in the room to hear). I thought of walking out in an obvious fashion, but this guy's stupidity was so compelling, like a car wreck, that I simply couldn't. It was stunning, how much this jerk breathlessly misrepresented politics and security affairs in DC. Me, I was (I confess) sticking around for the liquor at the cocktail hour.
That was fun. Great Manitoban beer called "Catfish" and a lot of neat discussions. Canadians are like cool Americans-and I mean every color and creed.
After the cocktails, it was a quick night on the laptop with some room service. My flight tomorrow is awfully early (6am!), but the good news is that I get back to PVD well before noon.
Here's the catch from the online subscriptions to the NYT and WP, plus The Globe and Mail:
■ Bush's pedal to the metal on Syria-hard to argue against
■ Two big pessimists flip-flopping back into optimism
■ Figuring the way ahead for Putin
■ When Greenspan worries, I worry
■ The UN shoots back in the Congo (a nice start)
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