My Trip to Seattle by Bob Allen

In the age of the “social network” it’s more than ever about who you know. But, before there was ever a Facebook or Twitter, there was hanging out at the gym. A few years back (OK, double digits), I met up with a guy in Orlando through my old boss at Disney. He and his wife ran a personal training business and he took me on as a client. After about a year of working out under Jeff’s watchful eye (he once came in my house and actually dragged me out of bed to work out) I got in tremendous shape and Jeff and I and his lovely wife Michelle (who we still call Mike to this day) ended up running two marathons together one of which was the first ever at Walt Disney World. Well, as luck would have it, Jeff surfaced recently at a trade show in Orlando and came to see me. He is now a new business development executive with a company that makes the most advanced fitness equipment in the world. It turns out these guys have wangled a way to include a pretty cool screen and interface with a lot more capacity to provide content for those long and lonely (and in my case sweaty and breathless) hours (or minutes) on the treadmill or the elliptical trainer. Just a long way of explaining why I flew corner to corner from Orlando to Seattle for a creative session tomorrow about just what kind of content might be cool in this new media. What do you want to see on your treadmill screen? Let us know!