On Returning

by Greg Sax, on 04 November 2009

by G. Sax (@gsax)

If you know me at all in other online gathering places like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare—and I trust that you don't, so I'll continue—you'd have seen me bouncity bouncing around the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, this week doing things for fun and things for work and fun things with people I know through work.

I was obnoxious about keeping people posted about my whereabouts, but one point of the exercise was to stay connected with my sphere in Minneapolis and Saint Paul in small, hopefully unobtrusive, bursts. It was awesome for keeping in touch with the wife. I would check in at a restaurant or announce a meeting or just post a pic and she was able to stay near at heart.

The other point of the exercise was to serve as an ambassador for my homeland. I was in Indiana for things involving a largely Indiana-based crowd, with some coming in from Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and one wayward soul from New Jersey. It was cool to be "that guy from Minnesota" for a few days, especially in this new era of instant communication. I met lots of good people in Indy, and I made some friends that I'm pretty sure will stick.

Those good people of Indiana might decide to follow my Twitter feed or check out the things I'm up to on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn or even find this blog post (especially when I repost it on Twitter).

And then they'll see me—at this very moment—encourage them to explore this blog and to learn from how we talk to our local audience and to look at Teresa's collection of photos. And then maybe they'll think to themselves that they'd love to see the places where these photos were taken and they will come here and benefit our businesses. And then they'll fall in love with here, and they will become "enthusiastic newcomers" who buy our homes and shop in our stores and eat in our restaurants and drink our beers.

Okay, no, I don't want them drinking the beers. Those beers are not "our" beers. Those beers are mine.

Speaking of beers, my first night in Indianapolis led me out to an Indianapolis Colts-themed bar with other real estate folks. The bartender was nice enough to switch places with me, and this is the photo he took: