It really pays to talk to people. You never know who they are, what you can learn from them, or what connections can be made. I have some stories from my summer in NYC but I’ll share one that just happened to me over the weekend.
I spent the past few days in Denver, Colorado and had a fantastic time. One of these involved an “accidental concert”. It was accidental because it wasn’t something we planned – it kind of just fell into place.
I was in Denver because I was on a meetup with my old team. (I just recently switched roles at Automattic). It was the first night and we were drinking (as we often do) at the hotel bar. Beau, the team’s lead, was talking to a guy at one end of the bar.
It turns out the guy was in a band and he knew all about WordPress and Automattic. It’s not surprising for someone to know about WordPress. It is surprising however for someone to know about Automattic, the .com/.org brand differences, etc.
The guy offered us free seats to a concert that the band was holding on Sunday night. How can you turn down a free concert?
In an even more surprising twist, it turns out the band in question was actually the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO). TSO is actually pretty well known and has toured around here a few times. They do some awesome hard-core christmas music and fantastic light shows. We also found out that the concert was going to be at the Pepsi Stadium, so we realized it was going to be big.
We were a little late to the concert but it was still enjoyable. I could have done without the depressing story that they told, but their renditions of some traditional songs like Greensleeves and In The Hall of the Mountain King were really awesome. The lasers, fire, and graphics were also very impressive.
I’m glad things kind of just fell in place and we got to experience this. Every time something like this happens to me it reminds me to be social and talk to people. Again — you never know what kind of connections you can make.
