Mention “social networking,” and the first thing that comes to mind is staring at your computer or smartphone screen for hours on end, sharing cat pictures or a video of some guy riding a bicycle into a swimming pool. And as cool as this may be to the hipster set, it’s no replacement for an actual (not virtual) experience with actual humans, or as the late, great Marvin Gaye once put it: “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby.”
All of this was made very clear to me over the past few weeks, as I experienced a whirlwind cross-country sojourn that included the LDI Show and Parnelli Awards in Las Vegas, followed by the AES Convention in New York — over Halloween weekend in the Big Apple, no less.
And having a chance to press the flesh and actually communicate face to face with others in the industry in a variety of non-formal situations, can be a real treat, whether sharing stories at the pre/post cocktail parties at the Parnelli awards, or on the show floor, hotel bar, taxi lines, etc. The Parnelli events were very cool, offering a place for companies that may even be competitors to meet and chat on neutral turf, an opportunity that doesn’t come up very often.
For example, this year’s Parnelli Audio Innovator Award recipient was amplifier designer extraordinaire (and QSC Audio founder) Patrick Quilter. This year’s Parnelli Awards gala seems to have adopted a festive theme, and Pat arrived wearing a King Tut headdress, matched with a Plains Indian-style buckskin shirt, which set a playful tone.
During the Parnelli cocktails, we chatted for a while about amplifier topology (duh!), both on some of his QSC designs as well as his amazing new 8 x 8-inch 200-watt ToneBlock 200 guitar amp head from his new Quilter Amps company. Then the conversation turned to discussing restorations and engine swaps on 1950’s through 1970’s Fiat 500 and 600 cars. This is a topic we are both very involved in — in fact, Pat has a vintage six-passenger Fiat 600 Multipla mini-microbus that was upgraded with a slightly larger 600D series (700cc) motor. Yet even with that update, the car is severely underpowered. He mentioned that his is sometimes lucky to make it through an intersection before the light turns red. I suggested the situation could be rectified by dropping in a Fiat 850 motor (this requires changing the camshaft so it spins in the right direction when installed in the rear-engine Multipla), but Pat is content to keep the vehicle in its mostly-stock condition. No problem with that approach, either.
Later that week, In New York, the AES show offered plenty of (non-virtual) networking opportunities. On the show floor, I ran across a couple of my friends — Joe Bull of JoeCo (who was showing updates to his popular JoeCo BlackBox rack-mount recorder) and noted live recording engineer David Hewitt, who captured countless legendary recordings over the years. It made for great chat and a photo-op, as new school and old school meet, sharing ideas, techniques and a few memories.
While I have no problems with inter-networking, the real thing is a whole lot more fun. Definitely.
For George Petersen’s video intro to the Nov. 2015 issue of FOH magazine, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3QJo1bwl5Q .