Want to Win More Often? Load the Dice.

Thanksgiving in New York City... Yep, that's the Pike family -- Sarah, Caitlin, Dyan and me -- celebrating Thanksgiving in New York City's Chinatown. For the first time in 28 years, we moved our traditional, home-cooked California observance of Turkey Day to the Big Apple. And judging by the crowds all over New York, business is returning to normal. Of course, there's nothing really normal about Ground Zero where you can still see smoldering skeletons of buildings. But I suppose that makes us even more thankful this year that we're alive and able to contribute something back to our country.

Full Disclosure: Part of the purpose of my trip east was to meet with speakers and sponsors at next year's PikeNet Forum (May 8-9, 2002). So I had a delightful talk with our keynote speaker Michael Schrage, Fortune columnist ("Brave New Work") and Co-director of MIT's e-Markets Initiative. When I asked Schrage about incentives to adopt new technology and the difficulty of measuring the benefits, he replied, "All you are trying to do is load the dice. You will not win all the time. But you'll win more times than otherwise." Cool thought.

John Gilbert, COO of Rudin Management, told me the most extraordinary story of his experience on September 11. He got out of a cab one block away from the World Trade Center thirty seconds before the first plane hit. As landlines and cell phones went down, Gilbert used a BlackBerry to coordinate his staff to shut down systems in his downtown buildings, thus preventing damage to the HVAC equipment and saving huge cleanup costs. Gilbert will present his insights on our "Building Security and the Internet" panel.

Spreading the Work... Would you like fellow Dispatch readers to know about your service? Sponsor the Dispatch. Issues are available next year. Interested? Send e-mail or call me at 415-485-6700. Thanks!

--Peter Pike