President's Conference Diary, Day 1: Pre-Conference Contemplation

The President's Conference "Facing Tomorrow" is due to start a bit later today at the Israel Convention Center, and I'm excited and overwhelmed in advance. I've stuffed about a hundred business cards into my handbag, and am hoping no one confiscates my phone at the entrance because of security. People I know from all over the world are coming, and there are of course all the other people--local and international, same-generational and both older and younger--we'll all be meeting over the next three days. I'm meeting up with the generationally appropriate KolDor group for networking first, and partying later. Some of those people are in my Twitter community, and I've never met them before. And that's just the social scene.

In addition, there will be varied sessions and high-level presenters. It's not that I won't miss Mark Zuckerberg, who supposedly canceled, but there are lots of other voices to hear, and I'm hoping that some of them will reinfuse us all with a spirit of renewed passion and enthusiasm.

And of course, there's the residual fear--that a gathering this large and prominent will attract the wrong kind of attention. There's already one group that is planning to release 21,915 (365 days x 60 years) black balloons over Jerusalem, to turn the skies black in tribute to the Palestinian cause:

So there's that. And they've asked people to wear black in solidarity on Thursday, which is a memo that many New Yorkers may receive and ignore, or not receive at all. But overall, this should be a conference to remember, and I'm already feeling lucky to be here.

More blogging--hopefully from the promised "available on-site computers"--later.