Michael Karnjanaprakorn

I’ve been away from blogging for the past week. Mixture of business and pleasure. It’s been crazy, hectic and fun! I’m writing this entry on the airplane ride back from San Francisco. I hate flying but figured I would take the time and update on what’s been going on with me. Actually, I just wrote that as an excuse to write a diary entry without sounding too dorky..

Last Wednesday was the first Vanguard Happy Hour we hosted in New Orleans – “Fire Jumpers and Change Agents in New Orleans.” Great turnout. Typical New Orleans, we had a storm that knocked out the power at Bridge Lounge but nevertheless, it gave it an intimate feel which was nice. Purpose of the Happy Hour was to mix the “young” and the “young at heart” – the younger generation mixing it with the people that have been in New Orleans trying to impact and change it before Katrina. Mixed and mingled with some interesting people. Met Walker Hines who is running for State Representative. And I think the kid is younger than I am.

Last Thursday, Robert LeBlanc invited us over for a fashion show at Republic. Bottles and models. One of my favorite things to do. My midnight curfew for that night didn’t happen. Celebrated birthday bash #1 with the 90s party last Friday. People showed up with a ton of great costumes. Wish my camera didn’t break but we took a bunch with the Polaroid. Will try to scan soon.

Last Saturday was White Linen Night in the CBD where they shut down Julia Street and opened up all the art galleries. Went by the SVA student show and saw some great work. She had 100 boxes that documented exactly every 3.65 days of her life. Well, mostly her vices. Again, wish I had my camera but each box was filled with cigarette boxes, used condom wrappers and rolled up tissues [which I think was supposed to represent a rose]. Looking at everything in one place really puts everything into perspective. I think if I documented every alcoholic drink I’ve had in the past year – I will probably quit drinking. After White Linen Night, celebrated birthday bash #2 with Amanda and Jeff at LePhare.

Hopped on a plane the next day to San Diego for the AAAA Account Planning Conference. It was great to finally meet everyone that I met online. Had drinks with Adrian Ho, Ed Cotton, Gareth Kay, Jason Oke, Aki Spicer, Jim Elms, Knox Duncan and a couple of peeps from the Martin Agency and Fallon. Throughout the next couple of days, I ran into Seth Gaffney which was nice to finally meet the man that invented “Bevistation” and took home an award for his work on the Bahamas. Congrats dude! You can probably browse some of the other blogs for notes from the conference but my favorite speakers were Eric Ryan from Method, Bruce Mau, Zeus Jones peeps, Headmint and Scott Lukas from Dosage.

Method is moving to a model where they focus on earned media and NOT on paid – Eric Ryan
Now that we can do anything, what will we do? – Bruce Mau

After San Diego, I hopped on a plane to visit friends in San Francisco for vacation. That didn’t happen exactly as we launched All Day Buffet on Wednesday. Did quick interview with the LA Times who is doing a story on the 2 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Hopefully, they will mention and include All Day Buffet in the article! Visited Josh at Venables Bell. Great company and cool people. Went to a couple of house parties on Friday night and ran into some old Adcenter peeps and met some new people that work at Venables and Butler. San Francisco has a high concentration of creative people. It’s truly amazing. The next morning I met up with Charlie for Brunch at Rex’s. Caught up with him and both of us shared notes on how we plan to change the world . It was great to see an old teacher that was instrumental in my growth in the past 3 years.

Now, I’m on a plane back to New Orleans. No matter where I go in the world, that city draws me back like a magnet.