I was scheduled to speak at a conference in San Francisco two weeks after September 11, 2001. I half expected it to be cancelled, but it wasn't. It was an interesting flight across the country with about a dozen people in a 757.

I got in the evening before the conference was to begin and I was supposed to present mid-morning. So I walked over to the Moscone Center a little early to register, pick up my speaker swag, and maybe find some free food for breakfast. I stepped outside for a moment and as I did I heard the familiar wump, wump, wump of an approaching helicopter. At the same time I noticed a large number of people lined up outside one of the entrances to the auditorium.

I asked someone walking past what the big deal was and after giving me a very strange look he explained that Steve Jobs was delivering the keynote in a few minutes. It was a toss-up between snagging that free breakfast and Jobs but fortune dictated that I go hungry that morning.

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.