Ok, so i was giddy when Dan Cederholm sort of remembered me from Vancouver a couple of years back  (after some strategic reminding) when we happened to meet at the coffee shop around the corner from the hotel where Web Directions North was going on. What? I’m not allowed a little giddiness now and again? A little star-struck-ness?

Seattle is a difficult town. Based on my visiting here about ten times, i can postulate there are basically two classes here: rich and not rich. If you are rich this is a great place to be. If you are not rich, well, not so much. The rich here go to all the myriad restaurants that open and close in the blink of an eye. The not rich make up the balance of the population that service the former if they are lucky. The ones who don’t score a gig catering to the rich make up a nasty remainder that make most of the homeless in NYC look like pussies.

Here the homeless are really ragged. I’m unsure why this is, but after about ten visits to this city i’m pretty confident when i say if you are homeless and hooked on something Seattle is not your best bet if for no other reason than you’ll have competition for a bed at the shelter.

But i was supposed to be writing about AEA09 Seattle. Right. Well, it’s good. Very good. It’s more than worth the price of admission if you don’t have to pay for hotel and airfare. If you must travel to AEA it’s not quite as good, but still if you can swing it do so.

What’s key is that this event brings together a group of people who are basically the poster children for Groucho Marx’s comment “i’d never belong to a group who’d have someone like me as a member.” These are people who are not affiliative by nature, but who tolerate grouping up with others for this event. Why? Because we’re all here to celebrate something larger than ourselves. Yes, on one level it has a certain spirituality. On another level it is strictly commerce. At the core is the notion that we are all involved in the development of this thing that remains slippery and elusive… and we all want to make it better. And that is good.

And i was equally giddy this evening when i insinuated myself into the discussion going on at a table at the Pike Brewing Co. between Dan Cedarholm and Ethan Marcotte and made Dan laugh when i said something witty. These guys are rock stars in my world, yet they are humble and receptive to anybody who shows up and cares enough to contribute.