Eight Meetings Downtown

One of the advantages of living in Philadelphia is that in addition to itself being a big city, it’s easy to get to other big cities like New York, Washington, Baltimore, and Boston. Similarly, one of the advantages of working in University City is that in addition to itself being a major employment hub, it’s easy to get to Center City, which is the region’s main employment hub.

Thus, you are able to do crazy things like have eight separate meetings downtown in a three-day span:

* Wednesday of this week brought me to a partner at 21st and Cherry and a client at 16th and JFK;

* Thursday of this week brought me to a group meeting at 12th and Arch, back-to-back catch-ups with colleagues at a coffee shop at 12th and Walnut, and then back to 12th and Arch for another group meeting; and

* Friday of this week brought me back to Broad and Arch for a speaking engagement, and then 12th and Arch for yet another group meeting.

SEPTA betrayed me at the very beginning – a stalled trolley car forced a massive detour on my part, the day after the region’s big snowfall no less – but kept me going smoothly for the rest of the week. And a dense, walkable downtown area makes life relatively easy for those of us on two feet (and horrific for those on four wheels). So even though so many meetings stacked one after the other borders on insane, I was able to manage relatively easily.