It’s Friday, no better day of the week to talk about Media parties, a personal fan favourite of mine, followed closely by media lunches. If you know, you know.
The Pilot, Hemmingway’s, Wylie’s, and Betty’s are classic venues with so much history with the media business. Every media organization had their local, and others just transcended across all teams.
What if I told you that in your mid 70’s, you would be taking an uber downtown for a media reunion with your golden oldies to reconnect and swap stories of years gone by?
I can tell you today that story is not so far-fetched! My mother had a career in media sales and was out last night cavorting with the days-gone-by-crew from Telemedia at The Pilot. Telemedia was around before cell phones, you guys!
In the past year, I attended a Toronto Sun 50th reunion and a few classic Metro mini-sales gatherings. They weren’t that long ago, but I remember laughing and smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, and at the Sun event seeing people I hadn’t spoken to in years and everyone just stepping back in line like no time had passed.
How amazing is working in an industry where these events happen semi-regularly? I admit that I live in a media and marketing bubble verse, but I don’t hear about these reunions from my friends who work in other industries.
Three cheers for the people who stick out an olive branch and the network of friends that spread the word and organize a gathering to take you back to days gone by, to swap stories, reminisce and laugh about all the fun times, crazy times, the brutal times, the corporate retreat times, and all the crazy changes along the way.
The post-party chatter is almost as good as the events themselves! This trend is no surprise, given so much of our industry is built on relationships and networking, and across Canada, each city has its own tightly-knit media community. For such a big industry, it sometimes feels small the way we are all connected by 3° of separation (or is it 1° now?). But life is busy, and it is so easy to fall out of touch.
If you haven’t had the chance to catch up with your old company or favourite team for a while, now is a great time to pull it together. A great social, while the weather is still decidedly cold and gloomy, could be just the thing to look forward to before late spring and summer clog up everyone’s calendars.
Let’s get back out there and keep the vibe alive! You will not regret the memories.
