It’s 2 pm in Midtown. The hot new portfolio manager at Alliance Capital ditched your meeting. So it’s just you, your CEO, a cell phone and a very heavy bag. Crosstown traffic is at a standstill, and you’ve got a 3.30 a couple of blocks away, so it’s senseless to go back to the hotel. What do you do? Duck into a Starbucks and set up office for an hour?
Bah! All work and no play make Jane a dull IRO. Have a spontaneous moment. Seize the opportunity to bond. Show your CEO that you’re a savvy traveler, a well-rounded renaissance power.
For example, you’re a stone’s throw from the Museum of Television & Radio, which boasts a jam-packed schedule for its 20th anniversary. You’re ten minutes away from the serenity of St Patrick’s Cathedral. Or you have just enough time to have that crick in your boss’s neck worked on at Osaka 56, a Japanese spa at 50 West 56th between Fifth and Sixth.
Knowing the tastes and style of the person you’re traveling with is crucial. So is knowing where to go and how to get there quickly.
London
The British Museum, roughly halfway between the financial district and Hyde Park, boasts the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. Though Greece would like them back, they’ll probably still be around when you get there. If not, check out all the mummies and the Rosetta Stone, the key to cracking Egyptian hieroglyphics, or just stroll around the gorgeous new glass-covered Great Court. The Tower of London is conveniently close to the financial district or, for a more modern perspective, visit the Tate Modern art gallery, built in a former power plant just across the Thames from St Paul’s Cathedral.
San Francisco
Chinatown abuts the financial district so don’t miss out on a dim sum lunch. Walking the streets of Chinatown with my CFO in September, we discovered a jewel of a museum residing in a building designed by Julia Morgan, the top female architect of the early 20th century. Her Chinatown YMCA now houses the Chinese Historical Society of American (965 Clay Street). We got a personal tour and ended up pushing our afternoon meeting back 15 minutes. The Cable Car Museum (1201 Mason Street at Washington) is a quick and fun side trip. And if you’re really strapped for time, just take a drive down Lombard Street. The ‘crookedest’ street in the world will surely shake things up before a meeting.
Tokyo
Frank Lloyd Wright fans will be disappointed by the third iteration of the Imperial Hotel (Wright designed the second in the 1920s). But wander upstairs and you’ll find the original Imperial Bar lovingly restored. Or if you must remain sober, the gardens of the Imperial Palace offer a quiet escape. If you have a meeting at Hotel Okura, you’re in luck. Directly across from the main entrance is the Okura Shukokan Museum, which boasts one of Asia’s finest collections of Buddhist art.
Milan
Head for the Duomo, a wedding cake of a cathedral smack dab in the center of the city. After touring the gargantuan interior, go up to the roof for a bird’s eye view among the statues and gargoyles. Then head over to the theater museum at the world famous La Scala opera house. Window shop at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II or Montenapoleone on the way, but save your real shopping for the Armani outlet store in Vertamate, about 40 km from downtown. Then hop onto a tram and head to the Museum of Historic Art in Sforza Castle, where you can find Michelangelo’s last work, an unfinished pieta.
Coming soon: cultural hooky in Toronto, Boston, Hong Kong, Paris and Chicago.
Lagniappe*
For those senior executives with a morbid appetite – as if the SEC isn’t scary enough! – London Walks offers a Jack the Ripper Tour, starting at Tower Hill Tube at 7.30 pm every night (www.walks.com). No roadshow to Edinburgh would be complete without a ghost tour like the Ghost Hunter Trail from Mercat Tours (www.mercattours.com). And when in Baltimore, visit the Edgar Allan Poe House at 203 Amity Street.
*Lagniappe: A French Creole word that means ‘a little extra’
