If I were a seminar organizer, I would pick the most uninteresting and gloomiest town I could find on the map and that’s where my convention would take place. Bentonsport , Iowa , pop: 40 (no offense to the 40 fine folks.) Holding a series of lectures in a place like Miami with so many possibilities of outside diversions completely defeats the purpose. Many attendees. Not so much attendance. Seriously.
My friend D. who for the following series of Miamian posts will bear the more fitting name of Xuxa Cienfuegos invited me to come along to her public affairs conference (not the conference part, the Miami part.) She waited until the last minute to make hotel reservations downtown, and oops since there were no vacancies, she just had to book a room in South Beach. How totally inconvenient!
I met her at the airport. She was sipping a Bloody Mary. It was 7 am.
By 3 pm, we had traded our Bloody Marys for Mojitos on Nikki beach.
By 4 pm, we had met Gianni, Raffaele, Marco, and Andrea.
I estimated Xuxa’s probabilities of attending any professional meetings in the coming days to an absolute zero…
nathalie with an h's Confessional 
My old home town! Haven’t be to SoBe since 1991, but would love to go back, even for a boring conference.
well, they call it conference tourism for a reason 🙂
I know I picked my last three because of location or/and people I would meet there Istanbul, New York, Barcelona, well, I’m going… Topic is of a secondary nature, though it helps if you can recycle some of the old stuff…
I see your friend is no amateur in the game.
Damn.
Thanks again for the delectable picture of your New Best (Male) Friends in Miami. Looks like you had a ball down there! Next time I’m invited. That’s right. I’m not waiting for an invitation. I’m rude like that!
Hope you had a great time! South Beach is perfect for a good time, doncha think?
You’re bringing me a souvenir, right? You know what I like… Since it looks as though you’ve already found some of the native artwork, that will do nicely.
And I’m so jealous. Did I mention that before you left? I think I might have–several times. Now even more so.
In order of ascending clues: bloody mary at 7, Mojitos in the afternoon and the fab fabio four on the beach, well one question arises. Who held the camera?
And only 3 photos in this series when we usually get treated to 12 or more? See what I’m saying.
What happened in South Beach stayed there, or at least the other photos stayed in your sim card.
Thanks for all your comments! 🙂
Davis: the conference was forgotten the minute we landed!
Grasswire: a man according to my heart! You are wise.
Pamajama: I know!!!
Epic: you get a bit cage-crazy in SoBe. May I recommend a seminar in the Caribbean? I’m not sure Xuxa will take me next time. We misbehaved.
Alan: good times were had by all though it is my experience that Miami mornings can feel pretty miserable.
Jason: get your own.
Bonnie: the thing is I was still in Miami when I wrote the post. Very close to the beach to be exact… so I could not devote too much time to processing all the photos. More coming your way!!! Nothing that happens to me and especially to others that are with me, stay anywhere we were. I always feel completely trepidatious to tell on them!
And I was afraid you only brought your iPhone with you. It seems like a really good conference for you 😀
Wouter, I always travel with a camera and kilos of equipment. It’s ridiculous! I had more equipment than clothing (not that you need much of that in Miami!)