i nearly never do before and after posts on the same topic but rointeresting needs it!

i knew it will be exciting as the list of speakers was pretty much money in the bank but i didn’t know that the event will feel so great and relaxed, but i guess i should have expected it given the high value of the iq average per square meter.

so, once again, we woke up early in the morning and struggled with the bucharest means of public transport (a big drifting competition caused the closing down of many central avenues so traffic was a real challange).

once we got to the beautiful building of the ark, we started work along a handful of volunteers in order to make things look good: some girls brought trays of delicious little things including a customized batch of rointeresting cookies, the boys arranged the chairs and i made good use of my burgeoning ocd and kept the food and drinks presentable at all times.

do you remember that michael jackson video where he’s using all the it celebrities of the moment? the one where in the end steven spielberg turns out to be the director of the video? if you do, that’s how rointeresting felt:  one of the pidjins was customizing a rointeresting tee shirt (which is now the prize for an ongoing internet competition) while talking to one of the speakers. everybody knew everybody and if one didn’t know somebody, it was enough to just go and say hi, the talk was guaranteed to go on and on. and yes, bogdana was our steven spielberg.

the whole thing was more on schedule than most other events i have ever attended so, at around 10, alexandru balasescu broke the ice with a speech centered around the male and female characteristics people secretly attach to traditional, vroom-vroom cars and to the silent, electrical kind.

each speech was, as planned, followed by a short q&a session. those proved to be very interesting in themselves and the person with the best question received a book from the pile made available by okian.

i will get into detail about my highlights of the day and just gloss over the rest, otherwise i will end up writing a lot and i know how the online reader’s attention span is limited nowadays:

so, then came ze list-owner catalin tenita (i admit i was half too stupid for his speech but i learned super fascinating stuff about virtual money and trans-humanity). then, we had a ballsy woman with a bone to pick with every person out there who thinks women are inferior and unable (i’m right there with her on this one) and she introduced herself as marta usurelu, the editor in chief of biz magazine. she had an inspiring story about how cutting yourself a new path in the jungle instead of using the paved road sometimes can be a winning strategy.

have you heard about bacania veche? well, its owner, marius todosiei told us his entrepreneurship story while sprinkling garlic on the trays of aubergine/tomato bruschetta he served to the drooling public.

he was followed by what i consider to be the climax of the event, mugur ciumageanu‘s speech about how our sex lives should be left out of the evaluation patterns of the researchers and drug companies. perhaps it was the topic or his very eloquent discourse: either way, he totally nailed it – he had the public wrapped around his little finger! he considered i deserved the book for best question: i asked how he manages to keep a straight face when his clients reveal such sexual practices as: using a prostitute’s oral skills instead of wife’s as said wife goes on to kiss the couple’s children with the same mouth or a super-educated person confessing to his fear of dying neurons as a result of masturbation…

the next speaker, serban alexandrescu tried to convince the public how being interesting is a great seduction weapon and decat o revista‘s cristian lupsa told us a little about the structure of the tale and its uses in journalism.

the choice for the closing speaker couldn’t have been better: iashido‘s passionate and happy speech about clocks and everything else resembling them. i bottled up a few quotes that will certainly take me back to that smiling feeling everytime i will need it: “superb! superb!”, “it’s not a clock…but it could be!” and, my favourite, “fans…clocks that run faster!”.

the official event ended but people lingered on and kept on talking. mugur left so i failed to express my undying admiration and hope that i’ll get some more samples of his wit apart from the dilema veche texts. but i talked a bit to alex, to marius and to iashido, who is as sweet as you can imagine.

bogdana thanked everybody for the help and rode the shark towards new undertakings, not so secretly hoping, like everybody else there, that we’ll get to see each other again at rointeresting 2012!

personally, i am pretty sure we will!

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