Good in a Room

During my trip to New York, I took Good in a Room by Stephanie Palmer with me. Stephanie worked with MGM and supervised several multi-million dollar films, including Legally Blonde. She has a lot of experience in meetings and hearing pitches from screenwriters. She decided to take what she has observed in meetings and give readers a few tips.

I enjoyed the book and got a lot out of it. Although, I'm not a screenwriter, I did take to heart much of what she said but tried to think how I could apply her suggestions to web pages and routine meetings. I also particularly enjoyed the chapters on the subject of networking. She talks about how it is more important to sit down with one person for an hour rather than 6 people for 10 minutes each. If you've been talking an hour, then odds are you will get along with that person should you work together. Well, that happened at our conference. In fact, we ended up talking with a guy for over an hour and a half. We enjoyed the conversation immensely and made a genuine contact.

I have to say this is the kind of book that causes you to look back on past experiences and say "what was I thinking?" I was embarrassed by myself when looking back at some of the things I've said or done in meetings.