OtherThanThat

Okay, so we all know that caterpillars become butterflies after spending time in a cocoon.
But who knew that butterflies had another evolutionary step?
At least the ones in my stomach seem to.

I’ve been working on the program for LeWeb3 since July. That’s right around the time that Loic Le Meur and I began sketching out the program and developing our wish list of speakers.
It took a couple of months to hammer out what would then become our first real conference agenda, but by the end of September all the emails, lists and stacks of 3 X 5 cards had changed into a jam-packed program filled with notable names like Hans Rosling, Philippe Starck, Joi Ito, Jason Calacanis and many others.
Of course then things changed again. Names left the list (though all of those noted above are still appearing), and new ones came on board.
I’d have to say that from late October through all of November the pressure was high. This was the time when people who’d been on our list and who had failed to reply to any emails or calls seemed to come out of the woodwork – in some cases with rather high expectations that they would just be put into the program because we’d expressed interest.
It took some very fancy scheduling, but I managed to orchestrate our program so that we were able to include pretty much every one of them – even a few of the extremely late reponders.
I equate this effort with the Herculean task of fitting the luggage of five people into a rather small, four-door Toyota – an experience I had last March while in Israel attending Kinnernet.

At least with the LeWeb3 effort I didn’t break a nail.
So what of the nervous butterflies I mentioned? Simple really. I’d thought that the last couple of months were the stressful time for me, and that as with other events I’ve produced that when it came to the point for show time I’d be calm and collected.
And I was – until this morning.
Suddenly I’ve awakened with the flapping wings of pterodactyls in my stomach.
I’m hoping it’s just because I’m hungry for a fresh pain au chocolat … and that once I get underway with the day things will calm down.