You're invited to the FocusCatalyst Brainstorming Salon THURSDAY, June 4th (The Salons have always been the first Thursday of every month since 2004.)

Drop by any time between 5-8pm at 695 5th St. #2, San Francisco.

For all the essential details (directions, what to bring, etc.) scroll just past the News & Announcements that immediately follows.

For the long version of this invite, with more details than you'll ever need (plus who comes to the Salons and lots of testimonials) just keep on scrolling.

The fine print: The Salon isn't a "networking" group or a  to place promote.  People connect at the Salons, of course, but that's not the point. The point is always "interesting people, interesting conversation." Also, all the people/places/things in the News & Announcement section below are from/about my own personal friends and connections.  Also, I only email this list with one invite and one reminder a month. And, if you don't live in the SF area you can still participate.  See below for details.  Also, apologies to those of you receiving this as text only and not in HTML.  The text-only formatting of this is sadly unavoidably awful.

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Salon attendee and fellow NextNower,  Bill Johnston is Chief Community Officer for Forum One Networks. (Follow him @billjohnston.) 

He and Forum One Networks is putting on the ONLINE COMMUNITY UNCONFERENCE again this year, JUNE 10th in Mountain View.  This will be my 3rd straight year going to it.  It's fantastic. Really a must-go.  Here's info;

"Just a quick note to let you know that we still have seats available for the Online Community Unconference....an open space event for online community and social media professionals and it's shaping up to be the largest online community-related event on the west coast.

"We have an AMAZING group of folks coming... Participating organizations include: Autodesk, Cisco, Civic Ventures, Collabnet, Diddit, Executive Networks, Get Satisfaction, Google, Hi5, Intel, Intuit,  LinkedIn, LiveOps, Microsoft, NetApp, NewGang Live,PARC, Rackspace, Salon.com, Scottrade, Social Edge, Symantec, TechSoup, Twine.com, Walmart.com and Yahoo!.

"TO REGISTER (and see the full attendee list): http://ocu2009-bj521.eventbrite.com.  The price is $195 pre-event, $250 at the door."

2. Salon regular Steve Nersesian has created "Dish SF--Culinary. Contribution. Community." Fantastic chefs. Wonderful food and drink.  Engaging community.  At Steve's spectacular loft (which is a few blocks from mine).

I went to the first one--a brunch in May.  It was fantastic.  I'm going to the next one--a Cocktail Party--on June 6th.  I can't recommend it enough.  They sell out quickly.  Act fast if you want to go. Here are the details:

"A Cocktail Party Benefitting ALBA Farmers connecting you with the source of your food.  Saturday, June 6, 20009.  8:00pm.

"You may know WHERE your food comes from, but do you know WHO your food comes from?  CONNECT with food & farm in an evening benefiitting the community of organic farmers at ALBA. ALBA creates greater economic opportunities for aspiring farmers while promoting ecological land management and healthy local foods. MIX with fellow Dishers & learn about this exceptional non-profit. EAT sweet & savory crudites made with a harvest of fruits & vegetables direct from ALBA's field. DRINK sake cocktails & tea concoctions.  $40 + $5 direct donation to ALBA. Limited availability.  Reservations required."

3. Lots of great reviews are coming in for Alan Webber's fantastic book, Rules of Thumb.52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self, the New York Times included.  Check this out from Alan's blog (go to the blog for more reviews plus to follow Alan's thinking.  Also follow him @alanmwebber.)

"The New York Times on Rules of Thumb

The New York Times is still, for most people, the newspaper of record. It not only prints all the news that's fit to print, it casts its discerning journalistic eye on all the books that are fit to read. Which makes it very gratifying, indeed, that today's NYT saw fit to say nice things about Rules of Thumb, a business book for small business people, entrepreneurs, and others too numerous to name! You can read what Paul Brown had to say right (here)

"Huffington Post Contribution

It's hard to think of a site that gets more passionate and interested (and interesting) readers than the HuffPo, which is why I'm delighted to get my thoughts added to the roll call there. Here's my most recent contribution, 'The Real Stress Test: What Does Leadership Look Like?"

4.  Several fellow NextNowers are Visiting Scholars at Stanford University  including Salon  super regular  :>), Bob Horn.  And NextNower Chuck House is the Director of Stanford's Media X.  Their speaker series is fantastic. 

Bill Daul estimated there were about 30 of us NextNowers at MediaX on 5.18 to hear our friend and Stanford Visiting Scholar, Bonnie Devarco, speak aton "Visualization Convergence for Collective, Connective and Distributed Intelligence".  Hopefully the video of her talk will be up soon on the Media X site!

Also, The Summer Institute at Wallenberg Hall is coming soon. Highly recommended.  Here's the info:  "Media X again sponsors the Summer Institute at Wallenberg Hall, a selection of workshops on topics that address new opportunities at the intersection of people and advanced communication technologies. In one and two-day formats, these workshops are designed to provide working professionals with access to Stanford thought leaders and their colleagues in a hands-on, skill-based retreat setting.  Topics include:

Social Connectedness in Ambient Intelligent Environments

Semantic Integration

Remote Collaboration in Mixed Media Mixed Reality Environments

Rule(s) of Thumb(s)

Social Media Collaboratory

The Secret Sauce of Innovation: Developing and Unleashing Exceptional Innovators

Virtual Worlds and Intelligent Environments

Augmented Decision Environments

New Metrics for New Media: Analytics for Social Media nad Virtual Worlds

Data Visualization: Theory and Practice

"Catch a preview of Helen Chen, talking about the ePortfolios workshop. Attend an extended session that previews Menko Johnson's workshop on Designing Spaces for Learning."

Early bird rates continue through May 30, 2009.  www.mediax.stanford.edu"

5.  Here's a great update from Salon attendee, fellow NextNower and great friend, Claudia L'Amoreaux:

"I have been working as Second Life Education Programs manager for Linden Lab since 2006. The innovative education work going on in Second Life continues to amaze me.

"Some of you might enjoy my recent blog post on INSEAD's work in SL (http://tr.im/kmDf). I'm writing a post now about educator Bryan Carter's VW (Virtual Worlds for the acronym challenged) work at his university in Missouri and the Sorbonne--he's the creator of Virtual Harlem (originally created on SGI Onyx and experienced in the Cave).

"At a recent event, Bryan was streaming a live jazz group into the park across from the Apollo in Virtual Harlem. Sweet! (There's a Virtual Harlem group to join in SL that will announce events like this in future).

"Bryan introduced me to the "embedded librarians" concept - librarians at universities are logged in to Second Life at same time as they're in the RL library (similar to the receptionists at INSEAD) and able to assist students inworld as well as students on the physical campus.

"In March I attended the Taxonomy of Virtual Worlds Workshop in Philadelphia with fellow NextNowers Bruce Damer, Galen and Bonnie DeVarco. I met Virtual Worlds pioneer Margaret Corbit, long time friend of Bruce and Galen's, and had a blast.

"I did a presentation at Nueva School in April where I met David Stephen, author of Architecture for Achievement (check it out) and co-founder of High Tech High, not to mention the talented cellist Zoe Keating, Make's publisher, Dale Dougherty, Maida Stupski of the Stupski Foundation, Denise Pope (Challenge Success), Joan Lonergan (Castilleja School), Lucinda Lee Katz (Marin Country Day School).

"We had a very interesting exploration on re-imagining education in the 21st century, facilitated by Dan and Meredith Beam of Beam Inc. with Gail Horvath and visual recording by Lesley Evers (I was surprised she didn't know Eileen Clegg), all kindred spirits of NextNow."

6. I need your help!  My site is in dire need of a redesign.  What's there now I put together very quickly just before I left for the  Walzell Meeting in Austria last Fall.  It's awful.

I've been having a heck of a time getting myself to do the redesign.  I know myself well enough to know I need to be accountable to others and I have to have a very hard deadline to get it done.

That's where you guys come in.  I'm going to get it done on or BEFORE (hopefully WAY before...) the July 2nd Salon.  Keep me honest! 

AND...the first person who emails me with feedback about the new site design when it's up,  I will write a free FocusCatalyst CustomCatalyst for them. 

Thank you!

A NOTE ABOUT NEXTNOW:   

A lot of people who come to the Salon are in a group I've been involved with pretty much since its inception in 2003, NextNow,

It's a relatively loose affiliation of interesting folks started by Bill Daul, who Doug Engelbart (fellow NextNower and who in the 1960's was the inventor of the mouse and a whole lot of personal computing in general--see Wikipedia) calls "human glue" and James Burke (from the UK, known for the TV series "Connections", see Wikipedia) calls "the world's greatest social networker." 

The FocusCatalyst Brainstorming Salon is where NextNowers get together most regularly. But the Salon is not a NextNow function per se and you sure don't have to be in NextNow to come to the Salon!

AND NOW, FOR THE SALON INFO:

WHAT:  Interesting people. Interesting conversation. Bring food and drink to share.

Optional: Write what you want brainstormed on the sheets we provide. Put them on the wall. Others add their ideas with Post It notes. Then you take your sheet home with new ideas and contacts.  (But also, you don't have to have anything you want brainstormed or put any sheets on the wall to participate and have a great time)

This isn't a meeting or a place to sell your services or products.  It's an informal, fun, and relaxed get together.

The end game isn't even brainstorming as much as it is "interesting people/interesting conversation."  To tell you the truth, most people get too involved in conversation to write on people's brainstorming sheets--but that's the point. The brainstorming technique works as a catalyst to help move the conversations beyond just the usual "Hi, how are you?  What do you do?"

WHEN:  First Thursday every month.

Drop by any time between 5 and 8PM for as long, or as short, a time as you'd like.

WHERE:  San Francisco: 695 5th St. #2 (5th & Townsend).

And yes, it has that SF rarity:  free unlimited street parking (after 5PM)

Note to Peninsula Folks:  My loft is one block from the CalTrain Station.  So, very easy access by train.  Bill Daul comes to virtually every Salon via the train from Palo Alto. If you'd like to join him, just let me know at bb@focuscatalyst.com.

Note to East Bay Folks:  It's easy to take the MUNI light rail at the Embarcadero station (located a level up from the BART Embarcadero station)  to the Caltrain station.  (Take the MUNI light rail trains to "Mission Bay".) My loft is a block from the Caltrain station.

HOW MUCH?  Just drop on by. No need to RSVP. And feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might enjoy the Salon.

For more info about the Salon, how it works, who comes to it (I name names and give
links), and who is on the FocusCatalyst Advisory board, keep scrolling beyond my Shamelessly Self Promotional section immediately below.

OFFICIAL SHAMELESSLY SELF PROMOTIONAL SECTION 

On my site you can get a free pdf of my book, FOCUS. The Catalyst for Creativity.*  In your work.  In your life.  Here are the blurbs from the book's cover:

"This book is catnip for cats, Champagne for humans, balm for the soul, and just plain good for whatever ails you! If you're looking for an operating manual to help you have more fun at work, work smarter at play, and do practically everything with more sizzle in your brain, more bounce in your step, and more jingle in your jeans, Betsy's book is just right for you. It's fun, adventurous, rebellious, practical, and chock-full of terrific hands-on tools that we all can put to work right away. Betsy, you're the best!"--Alan M. Webber, founding editor, Fast Company magazine.

"Wow, what a system!  This deceptively slim book is a true blockbuster, light-handed but surprisingly powerful and packed with ingenious, enjoyable, human (and humane) ways to break free of those dreaded dead spots that hold us all back when we ache to get into action. I'll be handing it out to my clients. (And I'll be quoting her in my next book!)  Thank you, Betsy Burroughs."      Barbara Sher, best-selling author of 7 books including Wishcraft and I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was and featured in popular public television specials around the country, barbarasher.com.

"This book is truly precious to me, because it shows a practical way to bring an important side of spirituality into everyday life - the principal of a playful mind.:
Gundula Schatz, founder and president of the Waldzell Institute, initiator and manager of the "Architects of the Future" program, member of the Global Council on Conscious Economies, Corporate Responsibility and Economic Justice, Ambassador of the World Wisdom Council.

"Reinvents creative thinking in a way that brings about tangible results."  Michela Abrams, Publisher & President, Dwell Magazine. dwell.com.

"This book has great tools for moving from the fear of problem solving to the fun of it.  Try them, but be forewarned , you and your organization will change!"          Sara Barnes, Trustee, The Marin Community Foundation, marincf.com

"There are two books in my life that have really helped me get out of my own way during the creative process. One is The Universal Traveler, which I read in college. The other is this book."  Bill Johnston, Editor, Online Community Report, ocreport.com.

"These positive, practical, and proven activities can help resolve any professional or personal creative impasse."  Ann Mincey, Vice President Global Communications, REDKEN 5th AvenueNYC, redken.com

"I loved this book!  I now see why when I take walks or get away for a few moments, I do feel more creative and can get more work done. Great information!"  Dorothy Ellis, The Lupus LA Committee, lupusla.com.

"A positively brilliant, yet practical, approach to those everyday challenges that beg to be done, but which we love to avoid. I really became caught up in the concepts and techniques.  A truly refreshing adventure into the job of getting the devil out of the details."    David O'Connor, Past President, Merle Norman Cosmetics, Inc., merlenorman.com.

*The alternate title for my book is, "How To Work From Home Alone Without Going CRAZY."  The current title, "FOCUS.  The Catalyst for Creativity" is a special edition for the Waldzell Meeting, a conference in Austria that I'm on the board of.  My book went to every attendee at the conference and I figured I needed a bit different title for that international crowd.

 

Who comes to FocusCatalyst Brainstorming Salons Anyway?

People who've never been to a FocusCatalyst Brainstorming Salon want to know what kind of people will be there. So I've put together the list below to give you a little bit of an idea. many are old friends of mine.  

A typical salon has about 50/50 regulars and new people. And the "regulars" are different each month, too. So if you're new, you won't be the only one! 

Also, the group is pretty gender balanced with a bit of a skew toward more men than women.  It's also all ages--from 20 somethings on up to, um, somewhat older folks. :>)

Anywhere from 20 to 50 (sometimes more) people come to any one Salon.  A few people come every month.  Some several times a year.  Some once a year.  Whatevre. So there's no need to come every month.  I have it every month so folks can show up whenever works for them.

A FocusCatalyst Brainstorming Salon isn't a "networking" group.  People connect at the Salons, of course, but that's not the point.  The point is always "interesting people, interesting conversation."

Nancy Friedman did a wonderful post about the Salons and the Walking Workshops* on her blog, fritinancy.com.  An excerpt from it below will give you more info about the salons:

"I got to know Betsy Burroughs of a couple of years ago when we worked on complementary projects for a start up client. An ad agency veteran and marketing pro, Betsy is one of the most creative thinkers I've ever encountered.

I was wowed by her approach to brainstorming and started attending her monthly salon  where I met as stimulating a group of thinkers and doers as you'll find in the Bay Area or anywhere.

(One of last month's attendees was a zookeeper who'd assisted at the birth of a giraffe; other solonists have included the Mexican trade consul, a product designer, a winegrower, and the founder of Blurb, the newish self publishing company.) 

Last weekend I finally got to participate in one of Betsy's other offerings, the Walking Workshop."*

*These Walking Workshops are now called FocusCatalyst FocusTours.

Here's a list that will give you an idea of who comes to the Salon.  (Keep scrolling for who is on the FocusCatalyst Advisory Board, too.)

Brian Gruber, Founder and Executive Chairman, FORA.TV, which gathers "the web's largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates going on all the time at the world's top universities, think tanks and conferences." From his bio: "Brian combined his dual passions - new media and public ideas - to found FORA.tv in late 2005. As the first head of marketing for C-SPAN, Gruber built the network's affiliate sales and marketing organization, which launched C-SPAN II with the largest subscriber base ever for a cable network at the time." He's also been at "Scripps Howard Cable, Heritage Cablevision, Jones Intercable, and Charter Communications, as well as Ogilvy & Mather Direct."

Bob Horn, Stanford University Visiting Scholar, stanford.edu/rhorn, is one of the country's leading thinkers on visual communication.  He literally wrote the book on it ten years ago, "Visual Language.  Global Communication for the 21st Century." About the book:  "it is the first to use visual language itself to describe and analyze that language. By his use of visual language on every page, Horn demonstrates that it is an immensely flexible and effective communication tool and one that invites and delights us."  More details at xplane.com or on Amazon.

Jim (Sky) Schyuler, CEO of Red7. Jim is also the Chief Technology Officer for the Dalai Lama Foundation. His blog there is at sky.dlfound.org. "Red7's full immersion games  make it possible to integrate a learning process, a real world game, or hands on support for a complex technology, into your customer's real life.  They integrate cell phones, SMS (cell phone text) messaging, PDAs, interactive email, online video and other technologies to deliver an entertaining real world experience.' 

Gloria Young, President, Young & Lamay Associates, youngandlamay.com, a company focused on dispersed team collaboration and organizational knowledge capture. Until recently,  Gloria ran the Legislative Branch of the City and County of San Francisco.  Among the wide range of consulting services Y&L offers it helps for-profit companies navigate governmental agencies and works with them and municipalities to provide practical solutions to meet their organizational needs in the global economy.  She consults both in the U.S. and in South Africa.  Her book, Knowledge Management Tales, compares and contrasts Johanesburg and San Francisco with enlightening insights for both countries.

Whitney Vosburgh, a fantastic artist, photographer, branding expert, and world traveler.  Check out his three sites at witneyvosburgh.com (Life/Art), consultwhitney.com (Living/Business) and vosmervoyages.com (Leisure/Pleasure)

Michael Layne of Michael Layne Designs,, designer of some of the most spectacular homes you'll ever see.  And I do mean spectacular.    I saw one recently listed internationally as a "Michael Layne designed" home for sale for £17 million.  

Clark Quinn, Director, Quinnovation, quinnovation.com, is an expert in cognitive design of technology, mediated learning experiences and author of the new book, "Engaging Learning: Designing, Learning Simulation Games.

Pat Dunbar, who cofounded the DiMA Group in 2002, now the DiMAS (Digital Media and Advertising Strategy) Group., which works with national advertisers to collaboratively develop new advertising models for advanced television. Before DIMAS, her 20 year career included stints as Senior Vice President at Ford Financial, and Vice President for Electronic Commerce for GMAC.

Jeff Saperstein, author, consultant and university instructor whose book "Creating Regional Wealth in the Innovation Economy"is a study on what works in the New Economy based on nine regions of the world.

Jennifer Halleck of Halleck Vineyard, halleckvineyard.com, which started as one acre of pinot at their home in Sebastopol. Their winemaker is Greg LaFollette, and their wines are featured at restaurants like the French Laundry (Yountville, CA) Per Se (New York City) and Boulevard, Aqua, Farallon, One Market and more in San Francisco.

Ted Weinstein of Ted Weinstein Literary Management, a leading U.S. literary agency serving authors of intelligent, adult nonfiction.

Bill Daul, founder, NextNow, human-landscaping.com/nextnow, a group of some of the smartest people I've ever met. (Check out the site.) Bill's also a web designer extraordinaire and improv aficionado. http://human-landscaping.com/nextnow/

Amy Phoenix, author, Amy's Mama Drama,  Amy is one of my closest friends and is a brilliant market strategist and tactician.  She is also a hilariously funny writer.  You have to check out her blog.  She's been recognized by other bloggers for making them "laugh every day." 

Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware of Work Design Collaborative and The Future of Work. Their work is often featured in  BusinessWeek and Fast Company.  Their new book is Corporate Agility. A Revolutionary New Model for Competing in a Flat World.

Eileen Gittins, CEO, Blurb, blurb.com.  As Eileen says, "Blurb helps ordinary people express their passions and record their experiences in books to share with their families, communities and the world. Making a book is a transformational."  Blurb has been written about in Fast Company, Business Week, New York Times, Wired, USA Today, O Magazine and more. 

FocusCatalyst's Advisory Board members are:

Michela Abrams, president & publisher of Dwell Magazine, and past publisher of Business 2.0 Magazine.

Linda Hayes, COO, Fusion One, www.fusionone.com

Richard Adler, principal of DigiPlaces,, and former director, Institute for the Future. www.digiplaces.com

David O'Connor, business consultant, past president, Merle Norman Cosmetics.

 

More Information About FocusCatalyst Brainstorming Salons

I'm not a big fan of linking to web sites or attachments. I'd rather scroll than link. So, scroll below for more information about the FocusCatalyst Brainstorming Salons for any of you who'd like a lot of details.

For those of you who haven't seen this invitation before, you may be asking yourself, "What in the world is a brainstorming salon?"

A brainstorming salon is an informal, drop in get together of interesting folks at my loft in San Francisco, South of Market. Come by for as long or as short a time as you'd like.

It's a salon because it's meant to foster some interesting conversation.

And it's for brainstorming, too. But the brainstorming is totally optional and in many ways quite unobtrusive.

I love brainstorming with folks. It opens up whole new ideas. I love the infusion of creativity and solutions that a good brainstorming session can give. But I don't want to require everyone to show up at a specific time, sit in a circle and brainstorm and then all go home at the same time.

So here's how it works:

Everyone who wants to (and you can certainly come to the Salon and not participate in the brainstorming part at all) when they arrive at the salon, takes a sheet of paper and writes on it something you'd like others to brainstorm about for you. It can be on any topic and you can ask for any kind of feedback you'd like.  You can do it anonymously or you can sign their name to it. Then you put your sheet on a wall in my loft.

Everyone else at the salon can then look at your sheet and if they have a brainstorm idea for you, they can write it on a Post It note and put it on your sheet. Those Post It ideas can be anonymous, too. Or not. It's up to you.

When you're ready to leave, after 15 minutes or after 3 hours or any time in between, just take your sheet home with the Post It ideas people have put on it.

You'll have fresh new ideas to think about and play with for any issue or situation you'd like.

You'll probably also have fun brainstorming ideas for others. And you may meet other folks dealing with similar situations to yours.

Another feature of the Salon is the big round table in the middle of it piled high with books, many written by friends of mine, including many by Salon regulars, and others that are just books I love.  It's an eclectic assortment on a wide variety of topics. Often people connect over the books, too.

And, for those of you who can't come at all but would like your Brainstorming Sheet on the wall, just send me an email with what you'd like folks to brainstorm about for you, ideas, suggestions, leads, anything, and I'll put it up on the wall and mail it to you afterwards. I can keep it anonymous or not. Your choice.

Please bring something to eat and drink to share. And the Salons also feature Alan's Wine Cellar wines for tasting, for drinking, for enjoying!  

Alan and his wife Michela are old friends of mine. (They even got me going to the Napa Valley Wine Auction for years.) Michela is on FocusCatalyst's Advisory Board and she's the president and publisher of Dwell Magazine. (Great magazine.)

Alan has been involved with the wine industry since 1984 when he began advertising and marketing major wine brands. Since then he has become an avid wine collector. He does fabulous wine tasting parties for corporations, for charity fundraising, and in people's homes, as a great way to learn about really interesting and inexpensive wines from around the world. And it's also a very fun party. He also teaches an in depth wine tasting course and provides cellar stocking advice. On top of all that, he designs gorgeous wine cellars. 

Hope you can make it. The address is 695 Fifth Street, #2, San Francisco. That's at 5th & Townsend. If you think you might be able to, shoot me an email and let me know. And even if you won't know until the last minute if you can come, it's fine for you to come on by anyway.

Betsy

Scroll down for comments from previous Brainstorming Salon attendees.

One comment that's been made by a lot of the Brainstorming Salon first timers is how easy it is to participate even if you don't know anyone there. You can start by reading the brainstorming requests on the wall and from there it's easy to strike up a conversation with the person next to you reading the same request.

Other comments:

"Your salons offer another benefit besides brainstorming and snacking: they're a place to practice the (almost) lost art of conversation. Madame de Stael, who ran a famous salon in 18th century Paris (and who said, "Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike") would approve."

:At the salon I talked to so many diverse and all fascinating people from different professions with different perspectives but I think what really "makes" the Brainstorming Salon is the warmth and openness among everyone because after all we're all FOB (friends of Betsy).  I developed some alliances and client relationships in a natural way just through conversation. There is a great flow of energy at these salons! "

"I really enjoyed your brainstorming event last week. What a wonderful group of fascinating people!"

"What a wonderful evening! The brainstorming salon was interesting, dynamic, and loads of fun. Not only did I enjoy meeting a number of bright, fascinating men and women, but it inspired me in new directions. Bravo! You are one creative individual. I look forward to the next Thursday salon at your loft. Thank you, thank you."

"I had so much fun and met such interesting people. Thank you!"

"Great Salon party. I enjoyed myself immensely."

"I LOVE these events. Even in the short time I was there, I connected with so many great people. There are starting to be "regulars" which is great since there is never enough time to get to know all the people at one event."

"I had a terrific time at yesterday's Brainstorming Salon. Thanks so much for hosting it. What an interesting group of people. So many good conversations. And then the serendipity of seeing Beatrice Wood's 'I Shock Myself' and Christine Walker's 'A Painter's Garden' on your coffee table. Downright spooky."

"Hey, last night's Salon was just great! Both Mike and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and got some good ideas. We were so jazzed that we went out for a "bar dinner" at Absinthe. We talked and talked about everyone we had met at the Salon and how energized we were. Thanks so much for inviting us."

"Great gathering last night. I really enjoyed it. And I love your swingin' bachelorette pad, it's the perfect party palace."

"That was a blast.  Wonderful people."

"It was terrific and I had a splendid time."

"Thursday's Brainstorming Salon was a hit! I really appreciate you opening your home and ideas to so many of us. I look forward to the next one!"

"Thank you so much for inviting me to the salon. It truly was like the old salons of Europe with smart, interesting people and a lively exchange of ideas."

"Having the chance to get objective input from people of this caliber is wonderful."

"Looking at the brainstorming requests is good way of 'meeting' people in a way that is beyond the first introductions social interaction."

"I felt energized by the level of intelligence and curiosity of the people there."

"I really enjoyed the people and ambiance."

"I couldn't tear myself away from the conversations."

"I always feel energized and empowered after spending time with you. Thanks so much. I look forward to the next one!"

"I thought it was wonderful to meet interesting, witty people and to talk on a range of subjects. The most complimentary way to show my appreciation is to say, 'I look forward to the next meeting.'"

"I loved it."

"I had a great time. Just being around persons from different walks of professional life rubs off on us, and we take what we want from that. It is invaluable! Thanks for including me."