What I Learned at the Summit – Part 2

“They Call It A Job For A Reason.” This is what the Publisher of the Washington Blade said in a workshop as she referred to our generation and our attitude toward work. I was the youngest person in the room and I wanted to stand up and say, “Excuse me?” But I knew that she was partly- well maybe more than partly- right. I don’t think I am as lazy as some but I do think our generation expects to have things handed to them. They expect to have Facebook time at work. They expect to have weekends off and not stay late.

I'm not saying that I have never been guilty of wanting to skip out early. But then again, I think of all the times we put so much time and energy into a company to just be let down. Take Arena Stage for instance; I worked so many hours and put in so much extra time because I loved the job but more importantly because I truly cared about the company and my work there. Was it life or death if I didn’t finish the budget reports on time? No. But I personally just couldn’t let them sit undone. And then the company hit on hard times and I was laid off. I was even more heartbreaking because I had tried so hard while I was there. Many days when I was sick I would come in only so I would not let the team down.

My point is that while we should care about our work and try our best, there is a point that you have to reach a work-life balance. Don’t expect your boss to make your job easy. Expect him to challenge you, test you and most importantly, make you a better employee and person. Put in the hours without sacrificing your sanity.

Lynne Brown, the Publisher of the Blade, said she could host a whole panel on “our generation” and our work ethic. When I sat next to her later in the day I asked her about that and said I would love to be a part of that panel. Are we lazy? Or are we just smarter about work / life balance? I am really curious to hear your thoughts.

What I Learned at the Summit – Part 1

This weekend was the 3rd Annual GLBT Economic Summit in Washington, DC. This was my second year in attendance and I learned so much again I thought I would share the big points in a couple of blog posts. The Summit is put on by the Office of GLBT Affairs, the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development for Washington DC, the Washington Economic Partnership and PEN- Metro DC’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce. As you can see, this Summit was no joke.

One of the Keynote Speakers was Harriet Tregoning the Director of the Office of Planning. Right away I sat there and thought, I will probably learn some business stuff but tying this into theatre is going to be tough. Then she delivered her keynote and she spoke about how DC should and can grow highlighting three ways to do so, Green Jobs, Retail and the Arts. Yes, the Arts took on a pretty big role in her speech. In fact she mentioned my company by name twice and she didn’t just talk about the big theatres but addressed smaller ones like the Fringe Festival and the Atlas Theatre.

She highlighted that in DC there are over 75,000 “creative” jobs. Which are everything from museums to media to theatre. She also said that of those jobs about 5,200 were in the performing arts. Most of the jobs were in media and communications in DC. In fact almost half of the creative jobs were in media.

Tregoning spoke about how we need the arts everywhere and how important they were to a thriving community. She said that the arts brought business to areas and helped with restaurants and retail. She encouraged us to think of creative ways to use empty space in the city and talked about having a rehearsal in a store front or even someone painting portraits and how that was more interesting than just an abandoned store front.

Why was I so excited about her speech? Because this room was full of business men and women, most of whom had nothing to do with the arts. Yet here stood someone from the planning office taking one third of her speech to discuss how the arts impact and should be thought of when planning the city.

Bonus – Tree Tweeting – She also was asked about trees in the city and she mentioned that you are responsible for watering any trees in front of your house even if it is not directly on your property. She went on to say that they are working on having your trees tweet you. This way you are reminded if the tree has not gotten rain in a while that you should water it. I just thought that was neat and had to share. More from the summit tomorrow.