Everybody Comes to Washington, D.C.

My wife and I had dinner with two sets of friends this past weekend -- one on Saturday night, another last night -- and in both cases, someone was in town for a conference. It's a nice benefit of living in a premier meeting destination: Sooner or later, everybody comes to Washington, D.C. And, despite D.C.'s reputation as a one-industry town, no two people seem to come here for the same thing. One of our friends is a law student in Arizona interested in a career in animal rights, and she was here for the Humane Society of the United States' Taking Action for Animals conference at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. Another friend is a U.S. Navy officer serving a one-year posting in Baghdad who was here for a senior-level conference on Iraq at National Defense University.

You know what they say: The next best thing to going to an interesting meeting is having dinner with someone who went to an interesting meeting. Or two people who went to two interesting meetings.