Congratulations, Vinnie Polito on the IAEE Pinnacle Award.
Those of you who have worked with Vinnie know not to underestimate how good he is at what he does just because he is fun to work with. For the rest, an example:
In 1998, Vinnie and I worked together on the acquisition of a trade show company in Canada that would take Comdex there into a different market, and fold our main competitor into the company.
It was months of back-and-forth to Ottawa, camping out at the Chateau Laurier, and once at the Macintosh Inn somewhere in the rural area outside of Ottawa (there are two restaurants in town – the fancy one and the sports bar, both of which occupy the same space).
Our office was an abandoned closet with a folding table and the cheapest possible extension phone – ostensibly so we wouldn’t freak out the workers.
The deal finally got done, and as with any acquisition, we had to decide who to keep on with the company. We interviewed, discussed and debated right until the days of their first show.
We showed up at the Museum of Civilization in our tuxedos and walked into the big opening gala. (little did we know that the entertainment later would include a woman singing while shaking an aspirin bottle to the beat, as the entrepreneur who sold us the company wept over the beauty of the music).
The museum was beautiful – full of glass, marble and very high ceilings. Everyone was in their finest at the reception on a bridge overlooking the atrium (we would all later be marched down the escalators to our tables by a bagpipe corps).
Someone had hired entertainers to circulate at the reception. As Vinnie and I surveyed the scene, thinking about the unpleasantness of cutting some people from this proud company, an over-caffeinated magician appeared in front of us.
He stood a little too close and was a little too happy. He had a rope and jabbered as he did some sort of knot trick right in our faces. He heckled us to be more excited as he did the trick again, challenging us to guess how he did it. We stared dumbly. He did the trick again, amping up his excitement. Still nothing from us. Finally he walked away.
We looked at each other for a second. I don’t remember who spoke first, but i remember what was said:
“The magician’s gotta go.”
Congrats, Vinnie.
