New York, New York

Last week I took a mini break from work and headed back to New York City for the Fast Company Innovation Uncensored event. This was the second year my mom and I have attended this event, and I highly recommend it to any Fast Company lover!

This year we had the pleasure of listening to/meeting a number of speakers including: 

• Baratunde Thurston, Director of Digital for The Onion and Author of How To Be Black
• Millard Drexler, CEO J.Crew
• Stefan Olander, VP Digital Sport, Nike
• General (Ret.) Stanley A. McChrystal
• Dr. DJ Patil, Greylock Partners
• Bob Bowman, President and CEO of MLB Advanced Media
• Scott Roen, VP Digital Marketing and Innovation, American Express
• Anna Maria Chavez, CEO Girl Scouts
• Second City Communications (and Improv Group)
• Tory Burch, CEO of Tory Burch
• Paul English, Cofounder KAYAK
• Mark Crumpacker, CMO Chiptole 
• Bob Lord, Global CEO Razorfish
• And More!

Second City Improv Group Performing

Tory Burch

The conference took place on Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers, and I was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to hear from some of the minds behind my favorite brands! 

A View from Pier 60

After the conference, mom and I decided to take in a few of my favorite NYC sights before meeting up with my aunt and cousin at Chez Josephine. You know....St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center.....Saks..... :) 

Inside St. Patrick's 

I got a bit distracted by some of those sights and we were running late. In a rush to make the dinner reservation - and with no taxi in sight - Mom got us a pedicab. I would be a little hesitant to board a wobbly wagon on the back of a bike any day but, given we were on 5th ave during Rush Hour, I was very determined to save our lives. "No way. No. Are you crazy?!" We waited for another 2 minutes with our pedicab friend while I desperately tried to get a cab and still no luck. "Fine." I boarded the wagon and desperately searched for a seat belt. It was, of course, no where to be found. One minute into the slightly terrifying ride we passed a nice couple on the side of the road. The man looked at his wife and said "We will never take one of those things in this city...they're a death trap." I looked at my mom (who was having the time of her life by the way), made our driver promise not to kill us as he swerved through 4 lanes of traffic, and decided to enjoy the rest of the ride...just in case it was my last (haha). 

Loving every minute of it!

Luckily we made it to dinner in one piece and headed into Chez Josephine with quite the story to tell!

So happy to be in one piece! (I will admit...it was kind of fun...) 

We had scheduled our dinner a bit early because Mom had booked us tickets to see Ricky Martin shake his bon bon in Evita! After two courses of perfection we headed down Broadway to the theatre and watched the show.  It was a short, but wonderful, trip to the city.