groping is the new networking
Well, the Leather Leadership Conference is over. It’s been wonderful - thought-provoking and fun, with great speakers, excellent food (!) and many opportunities to network with totally cool people from all over the place.
Not to mention the great discussions about the interesting challenges people face when running kinky groups. I mean, where else am I going to find myself in an organizational management workshop doing a pair exercise with a guy who runs a 1500-member SM group in D.C., discussing the following assigned problem: "You each manage an SM organization, and your groups want to hold a joint play party. One group has a strict no-sex policy for their parties because attendance requires nothing beyond an entrance fee; the other has a strongly sex-oriented play culture because their parties are private members-only affairs. Discuss up to three strategies for managing this potential conflict." Not exactly your standard organizational leadership conference. The funny thing is that, if we laid aside the 2,000-mile distance, the national border-crossing issue and the fact that my organization is only for women and his is mixed-gender, it’s not really a stretch to be discussing it - it’s entirely possible that either one of us might encounter such an issue.
Another reason I love this kind of conference can easily be summed up by a two-minute exchange that took place about ten minutes ago in the elevator. The bulk of the attendees cleared out this afternoon once the workshops were over, but Pepper and I are staying a little longer to hang out together. We were just coming back to the hotel after eating dinner witih friends. We pressed the elevator button in the lobby just as a muscular man in a leather vest and cap was walking toward the elevators with a smaller man. The elevator dinged; the big man said to us, "It’s nice to see there are still some freaks around!" by way of hello. Laughter, introductions as the door closed and we punched in our floors. He leered at Pepper, who is (as usual) wearing very short shorts. The exchange went something like this:
Big guy: "So, could those shorts get any shorter?"
Pepper: "Sure, wait!" (grins and shimmies shorts up even higher, exposing another few inches of silky hairless thigh)
Me: "You wanna touch his thigh? Really, they’re like butter. Go ahead and have a stroke." (Yeah, I’m a shameless pimp sometimes. Blame it on my lasting love of man-on-man action.)
Pepper: (keeps on smiling)
Big Man: "Let’s have a look here." (crosses the elevator, gives a cursory stroke of the thigh on his way a lot further up to focus his examination on a rather more intimate region)
Pepper: "Oooh!" (more smiling)
Elevator: Ping!
Big Man: "Oh! Well. This is our floor. Nice meeting you!"
Me: "Have a great night, nice meeting you too!" (smiles all round; elevator door closes)
Pepper: "Shoulda known. The men always go straight for the jewels."
Now really. All conference attendees should be this friendly. I’m firmly (ahem) convinced that gratuitous elevator gropings between community leaders is an excellent networking strategy. Or at the very least, it makes for a memorable conference.
