High Cotton

I took this picture of the lobby of the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel while waiting in line to check in with a most androgynous looking man.

That’s what my Dad would say, “You’re in high cotton!”  It’s the Renaissance Mayflower in Washington.  It was after dark when I arrived at the Metro station from National Airport, and walked the three blocks to the hotel.  I took a short walk around the block looking for food that I could pronounce.  I’m considering placing outside my door a small tray with the Subway wrapper, can of Pepsi, and Lays chip bag, which represents my meal, along side my neighbor’s tray with silver covered plate, fluted glass, and flower vase, with an out-of-season lily.  Is that mean?

This is the Association of American Publishers annual conference, this year entitled, Global Publishing: Emerging Markets, New Models.  Stephen Sterns, of Columbia University Press (that cotton keeps getting taller), and chair of the Electronic Information Committee of Professional and Scholarly Publishing division of the AAP, saw me present at the ALA conference last year, and asked me to come and talk about millennials and Web 2.0.  I have almost no idea what to expect, except that they needed my presentation slides several weeks ago so that their attorneys could go over them.  That’s a first for me.

If the decor of this hotel is any indication, I’m going to be led around in complete befuddlement.  I’ll let you know.  One thing that has occurred to me in preparation for my presentation is that publishers, like educators and librarians, are in the process of reinventing themselves — and that can be very exciting.  Turning publishing into conversation might truly electrify formal and scholarly communication.  Means letting go of a lot.