Hanging Out in a Nouveau Entrepreneurial Culture

Last weekend, I attended an international conference of new technologies and deregulated energy entrepreneurs.

Okay, I didn't exactly go to Paris, but Charlotte, NC is pretty convenient for such a cool opportunity.

So why would an attorney go to such an event? Well, attorneys have felt the recession like everyone else. In fact, while there I met or heard surgeons, other attorneys, corp execs, even a guy who ran a honkingly large division of Virgin Records.

What did I come away with?

A big dose of insight into how to create value for consumers, for one.

Loads of stimulation of ideas as I listened to people who had started companies and businesses in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Shoot! Even the Donald was there, and his appreciation for the smaller entrepreneur was gratifying.


THE SMALLER ENTREPRENEUR!!! Shoot, that may have been the biggest thing I got from the three days of this conference.

In a microchip world, the smaller entrpreneur can now - regularly does - achieve financial results that thirty years ago required boatloads of financing and a big physical footprint.

Begrudgingly, the President even gets a little credit.

Yes, hard to believe, isn't it? I am giving credit to the President.

He has been pushing the States to deregulate electricity and natural gas marketing by a 2015 target date.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet both see this as the next big thing.

A huge number of the attendees at this conference were already achieving some great value creation in the US, Canada and Western Europe in that economic segment alone.

And yes, I went to the conference already committed to that concept.

What is so amazing is that the ability to enter and participate in that business, even across state, provincial or national borders is great for almost anyone.

No joke.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE SUCKER!!!!

Last night My Reason for Living, our daughter - She Upon Whom Sun and Moon Rise and Set, - and our little neighbor, Pablo, went to drive through the Roper Moutain Lights and walk through "Winter Wonderland" while there.

There is a guy there each year who does balloon figures. He is Michaelangelo with those things.
We got in line, but SUWSAMRAS and Pablo just wanted to act out "Chipwrecked." the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie we had seen a few hours earlier.

MRFL suggested getting them suckers from "The Lollipop Lady" whose stand was just inside the building where the balloon guy was.

I thought this was just an interesting project for her. Turns out the Lollipop Lady is a fourth generation candymaker whose nom de guerre is Heather Norton - wife of a Clemson prof, mom to two boys, and lollipop maven par excellence!

All kinds of shapes, regular flavors, and diabetic-friendly.

I thought about suggesting Guinness Extra Stout as a St. Pat's offering, but decided against it.

Heather ships all over the country, and it is easy to see why. I got a watermellon happy face. (You know, a Guinness Extra Stout happy face would be great.)

The lollipop is fab, and does not lick quickly. I was tempted to chomp it, but thought better of it.

These lollipops are art, and to eat them rather than lick them would be as pedestrian as treating pheasant under glass as finger food.

Check out Heather's facebook page shown below. If you love a great lollipop, and believe in a nation of small shopkeepers, as my fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson and I do, you can't go wrong with Heather's product.

facebook.com/thelollipoplady