The Courtney Report on Her West Coast Excursion: Part 2

Part Two - Lunch with the BBC and Mayor Willie Brown

Part of the thrill of business travel is the opportunity to partake in the pleasurable pastime of dining in a city's trendy, upscale, noted (fill-in-the-blank) establishments. Having enjoyed the hotel's happening bar, I also partook in a fine lunch at the XYZ Restaurant with BBC America PR manager Josh Weinberg and BBC America.com publicity manager Matt Marshall on Wednesday, July 18th. I learned about their efforts of putting original content in addition to existing BBC content on their site. We chatted about events and news stories of the day and I learned more about the state of convergence and ITV in the UK.

Meanwhile, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown sat down at the table next to us and in his deep, melodic voice ordered the spinach salad and pecan-crusted chicken. And coincidentally I learned over the course of my stay in EssEff that the W is apparently the hotel of choice for three of California's mayors, all of whom also seem to have children out-of-wedlock. I wonder why the W is the welcome way station for these mayors' wandering and love wagering?