Have you hugged an Enterprise Blogger today?

Enterprise conference season is in full swing and it gives you a chance to catch up with so many smart people who make this industry a reality – Stan Swete at Workday, Charles Phillips at Infor, Mike Ehrenberg at Microsoft, Steve Miranda at Oracle, John Wookey at Salesforce, Seth Ravin  at Rimini Street and so many others.

For me, though, I cherish the time to spend time with fellow bloggers. Hard to believe but we hardly talk about the industry. Brian Sommer and I have a standing  reservation to share Hot and Sour soup at Fang’s in San Francisco. A common topic – the state of railroads. I look forward to history lessons particularly about the Civil War, from Denis Pombriant. Tales of exotic global trips from Brian Vellmure. Philosophy (Roger Bacon in particular), single malts and book publishing from Paul Greenberg. Teslas and taxes from Ray Wang. Spain and Italy from Frank Scavo. Joys of walking with Esteban Kolsky (my FitBit loves him). Photography from Michael Krigsman. Cricket from Dennis Howlett. More with Zoli Erdos, Jason Corsello, Jevon Macdonald and so many others

And when we talk about the industry, we usually argue

Next time you run into an enterprise blogger, resist the temptation to discuss your company or your competition (unless they want that on the agenda, then by all means have a crisp conversation). Engage more about their passions.

I think you will walk away realizing they are smarter than you thought. I usually do.