Valley Talk
from Summer 2000
by Colin Leinster
Were you at the mergers and acquisitions conference that Corporate Board Member sponsored earlier this year? If not, you missed some great networking opportunities-not to mention some great speakers. One of them was Harry M. Motro, a familiar name in the dot-com world who really hit it big when he sold his Internet navigation service company, Infoseek, to Disney last year.
Motro is scheduled to make a repeat appearance at another Corporate Board Member affair, this time at the New Economy Directors Summit to be held in September. The two-day program addresses the challenges that face board members of high-growth companies. The 25th, an optional half day, has been set aside for director education. Motro`s panel, part of the schedule for the 26th, will be discussing how to find and keep good help, a challenge that faces all boards. Among the other speakers: former SEC Commissioner Joseph Grundfest, now a professor of law and business at Stanford`s law school, and Jim Clark, chairman and founder of myCFO and the man who helped launch Healtheon, Silicon Graphics, and Netscape Communications.
Suitably enough, the summit takes place bang in the heart of Silicon Valley, at San Jose`s Fairmont Hotel. I hope to see you there.
The event is certain to run smoothly-March`s M&A conference sure did-and a lot of the credit must go to Annemarie Williams and her team, the workhorses who put these logistics-heavy affairs together. Annemarie joined our company five years ago right out of college (Western Kentucky). She worked for a year in the circulation department of our sister magazine, Bank Director, and then moved to become education and events director, a mouthful that she usually shortens to conference planner, and a job she now performs for both magazines.
She has put on 15 such events, and all seem to follow a pattern that starts calmly enough but quickly winds up into a condition of high anxiety. "Some speakers tell you to relax, they`ll be fine. They just arrive and do their thing," says Annemarie. "Others send in an advance team to make sure all the tech support is on track."
Annemarie and her coworkers-"I couldn`t possibly do it all by myself," she says-put together the brochures, work with the hotel or resort on rooms and conference facilities, negotiate with various sponsors, arrange local transportation, haggle with printers, and so forth. Imagine using only your finger tips to hold 15 corks under water at the same time and you`ll get a picture of Annemarie at work.
Does she ever wake up at 4 a.m. in a panic? "All the time. I worry that I`ve left somebody out of a brochure. Or that somebody`s name is spelled wrong. And the closer the conference the more often it happens." Her best moment? "When the last speaker is on his feet and the A-V is working. I let out a deep breath. Everything is taken care of." And so it always is.
There are three holes at Corporate Board Member these days. One is that Caroline Donnelly has resigned as the editor and moved on to become editor in chief of Family Money.
