Able Grape West Coast Conference Tour

Boston has been beautiful this winter, my first “real” winter in 25 years. No doubt this was in part because I didn’t bring my car, and thus missed out on the dubious daily pleasure of digging one’s car out of a snowdrift, or fighting for the parking spot one has just cleared. But mostly it’s about memories: this winter has taken me right back to my childhood in the Midwest and my teenage years here on the East Coast: the wonder of waking up to see the world covered in white; remembering the way the deepening snow reflects light, but deadens sound, leading to days as eerily quiet as they are stunningly sunny; the warmth and crackle of a roaring fire while the snow silently falls outside the window (this last perhaps differentiated from my childhood by the presence of a fine glass of whisky or Armagnac). The winter would have been perfect had it not been for one mishap: slipping on a patch of ice on an otherwise beautiful long run, bruising or cracking my ribs (file under “don’t try this at home, folks.”)

Nonetheless it will be great to get back to sunny California for a few days. I’m speaking at a couple of conferences: next week I’m honored to be back for the second time presenting at the Wine Writers Symposium, where I’ll be on two panels, one about search with two fantastic bloggers, Alder Yarrow of Vinography, and Joe Roberts, a.k.a. 1 Wine Dude, and a panel for freelance writers, chaired by the talented Bruce Schoenfeld, where I’ll be the token “tech guy,” and talk about the role of social media in building a “personal brand,” tools for finding great wine information and, well, whatever else comes up, which I’m sure will be quite a bit. The week after that I’ll be at the Design Bloggers Conference in LA, giving a talk on search-friendliness for design bloggers, hoping to outdo the search engine optimization for bloggers and wineries presentation from WBC 2009. If you’re at either of these conferences, I look forward to seeing you and/or meeting you! If you have particular things you’d like me to cover on any of the above topics, please let me know and I’ll try to work it in.

Then comes the best part of all: seeing family and old friends. To all of you: I can’t wait! See you in a few days.