Much Ado About Nothing

A woman roughly my age recently began renting one of the offices downstairs from mine. A small but high tech space nested beside the elevator shaft. She runs a photo preservation business. Archiving, organizing and digital reconstruction of old photographs. Not necessarily an earth shattering concept in a city that boasts the internationally renowned George Eastman House, Eastman Kodak Company, RIT's famed photography school and long standing, reputable companies such as Lumiere that also preserve images.

Here's the rub: she held an official ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday in the lobby of our building--which is a beautiful old mansion turned into office space. She literally rolled out the red carpet. Music. Food and wine. The local media were here. Film crews. Mayor Duffy. Representatives from the regional economic development organization. People were giving long winded speeches left and right.

I need to take lessons in PR from this woman. Serious fanfare for a small start-up. Well executed from the invitations to the decor.

During her speech, she delivered a few comparisons between the life she left behind in LA and the life she's reportedly enjoying in Rochester. Sunny, mid-80s vs. gray and 40 degrees. Smog and congestion vs. the ability to be anywhere in ten minutes. She then sold us on the architecture, the big city culture and the friendliness of our own city. And the crème de la crème of her thesis on why Rochester trumps LA? We have a hot mayor. Stated aloud! With him standing mere inches behind her.

My hat is off to this woman for pulling off such a great publicity stunt and then having the balls to deliver a somewhat less-than-deferential compliment to our own mayor hottie pants.

She's my new hero!