Update (2/18/11): There were only 1,100 people at the luncheon.
I just returned from the annual meeting of DowntownDallas Inc. at the Fairmont and I’m pissed. What an utter waste of time for the 1,500 or so people who attended. They spent 43 minutes publicly patting each other on the back for their hard work and good deeds. That’s not an estimate. That’s a fact. Forty-three minutes. “So-and-so has such passion and dedication to downtown. Join me in thanking her.” [applause] “So-and-so is amazing. Without his passion and dedication to downtown, we never could have done this.” [applause]
Hey, listen, I’m sure all these people are amazing. And they’ve been working hard. DowntownDallas Inc. does good work, and if you’ve spent any time at all in the Central Business District, you know far we’ve come, thanks in large part to DDI’s efforts. But you don’t need to make 1,500 citizens eat rubber chicken so you can slap each other on the back and bask in applause. These amazing people have been working hard because, I’m told, they have passion for downtown. And they’re dedicated to it. They don’t work hard because they want rubber chicken and applause
Here’s what I wrote after last year’s annual DDI meeting: