I was traveling in the US during the October November period and of course had the opportunity to observe the election campaign up close. One trip into New York actually took me to Trump Tower for a lunch with a prominent marketing identity and professor of business. I also had a chance to have a number of discussions with partners and colleagues of many years including a short but valuable lunch with Tom McMahon now the President of RGS in Washington DC.
Nigel Arthur had introduced Jarrel Price of Park Advisors and I met up with him at the Crystal City Marriott hotel for coffee the day after meeting Tom. I was impressed with his understanding of the relevance and timing of the GTR and we discussed his role in the team.
It was also great to lunch with Andrew Lauter at the Chicago Airport Hilton and benefit from his observations and acute understanding of the tech bridge into business and how we could best utilize some of the opportunities for the GTR project as this was now coming to a very serious state of development.
While in New York I had the chance to have a lunch with an old friend from the UN Raúl Zambrano and was able to discuss a role for him in the GTR. He is well equipped from his twenty odd years in the UN with experiences in ICT and policy issues to be an excellent resource on country and city strategies.
Further travel took me on to St Louis where I spent several days catching up with Dave Hough and having long talks with Rich Truex. This was followed by time out in the west coast that I have talked about elsewhere.