Lessons of Florence

It’s 2009 - only for one hour so far - and the center of Florence is celebrating New Year’s in the same way it does every year — with deafening firecrackers and screaming people on the streets and broken bottles laying in smashed bits of green and clear glass everywhere.

For a city of the Renaissance, it certainly attracts modern celebratory habits.  The stone buildings and narrow streets are wonderful echo chambers for firecrackers.  I am snuggled safely in the interior part of my apartment - in my living room/dining room/kitchen which is in the back of the apartment - not along the street.  My bedroom - purtroppo (unfortunately) is along the street side with windows that aren’t the double paned ones the Realtor said they were which is why it took me about 7 months to adjust to the noise that starts at about midnight and continues until 5 am most days.  However a night like this…. there is no adjusting to.  I’ll sleep on the sofa.  Happy New Year!

But before I do, I thought it might be helpful to think a bit back on 2008 before looking forward to 2009.  In order to prepare from lessons learned.  I think I’ll focus on the use of my time. 

Everyone who knows me here knows I work 7 days a week, and I don’t eat properly when we are nearing production because I don’t have the time to shop, cook or eat and I don’t sleep enough because there’s too much to do.  Obviously all of that needs to change.  I am getting older and can’t - and don’t want to - keep this pace going for much longer.  One of the things I do a lot of is take meetings.  I’ve been thinking a great deal about these - whether they really have been productive or not.  So I think I should make a list of the meetings I’ve had along with the results…. to evaluate them.  Here goes:

2 meetings with the Director of the Mayor’s Staff/Offices about the rapport between FITC and the city of Florence.  Result: at the last meeting he suggested we contact Il Perfetto who has the responsibility of the health of the city.  The office of Il Perfetto can’t imagine why he should meet with us.  Time spent - 1 hour in meeting time, 4 hours in strategizing how to get to Il Perfetto, 2 hours in letter writing and translating.  Value to FITC: ZERO

1 meeting with Assessore al Turismo (Minister of Tourism) about the rapport between FITC and the city of Florence through the tourist office.  Result: he said he would be holding a large meeting with FITC and his staff to determine the best way to go about projects.  We never had that meeting but we did end up with a meeting scheduled with the head of Ufficio Sviluppo Economia (office of economic development regarding tourism).  Of course the lady forgot about the meeting so we met with a Director of a department instead who turned out to be quite nice.  I’ve had, in total, four meetings with him to determine if FITC can do some aspects of the Florence Art Crawl projects legally in the city (knowing everything needs a permit).  We’ve determined we can and how and were told we would receive the patrocinio (patronage - don’t get excited it doesn’t mean money) of the Assessore al Turismo.  Time spent - 1 hour meeting Assessore, 5 hours meeting Director at other office, 15 hours with internal meetings to prepare for these meetings; 7 hours preparing documents of proposals and translating them.  Value to FITC: MINIMAL (information gathered) ZERO (regarding rapport established), still waiting to hear about the Patrocinio

5 meetings with Presidente Marmugi of Quartiere Uno about the rapport between FITC and the historic center of Florence (see a pattern growing yet?).  Result:  Marmugi (everyone uses last names here because first names are very common - Stefano (Marmugi’s first name), Simone, Lorenzo…. so last names are helpful) anyway… at the first meeting Marmugi said he wanted to create a big meeting with FITC, him, and other reps of the city to see the best way to engage our work, particularly with university students in the city.  Time spent: 7 hours in meeting Marmugi, 20 hours of internal meetings to determine next steps; 15 hours in preparing various proposals and translating them. Value to FITC: ABSOLUTELY ZERO.  Still waiting on that big meeting.

Well… it’s 1:30 in the morning and I’m too tired to write the rest of the list which is MUCH more expansive and, I’m beginning to think, have pretty much the same statistics.  Mainly lots of time spent, and very little gained.  There is a perspective in this city that having a rapport with the Comune (the city government) is important.  But in Florence - unlike Hollywood where I lived and worked for 15 years for example - the part of “who you know” is all there is.  It’s simply a big game of “who you know” and it results - mainly - in mediocrity and lack of actual, valuable projects or initiatives for the city.  And… it’s a waste of my time!

And I didn’t even list the hours upon hours of trying to simply GET a meeting with the new Consul General of the United States.  But, I’ve determined that meeting is irrelevant.  Apparently she doesn’t think there is a real problem with US students and binge drinking in the evenings so our Creative Campus project is really not something she’s interested in learning about.  I’m sure the girl who fell out the window on Borgo Pinti the other week because she was plastered was just a fluke against the statistics.  I will take her example and not waste my time.

So one of my New Year’s resolutions is just that…..to stop wasting my time - and FITC’s - by taking these meetings.  We know what we are doing…. and are on the right track.  We’ll just continue on our own.  Then - when they need us.  We’ll see if we have time to meet with them.  Hopefully we’ll be too busy doing great creative work on tremendously effective projects.

Buona notte ragazzi… grazie per permettermi controllare questa cosa.

I hear sirens…. I truly hope no one has been seriously hurt out there.

Buon Anno - un anno con pace, benessere, felicita’, amore, creativita’ e soldi!/Happy New Year - a year of peace, health, happiness, love, creativity and money!

Bari