It was twenty six years ago that I finished a consulting contract at Bell Laboratories and decided to travel around the country and then around Europe. I handed over the keys to my Mott Street apartment to a good friend from college and hit the road.

Eight months later, I returned to Mott Street and searched for a new place to live. I ended up on a sailboat at the 79th Street Boat Basin. My friends from Mott Street would often come up to hang out on the boat.

On the ground floor of the building on Mott Street, there was a stored called the Robotorium. We would sometimes hang out there and got to know the owner and her friends. One friend was a young woman named Karen Bradunas. She would join Scott and Marty on their trips up to the boat basin.

Over the years, we lost track of one another, so it was with some surprise when a month or so ago I received a friend request from Karen on one of the social networks. As best as I can tell, she was at some networking group where they talked about connecting with old friends via online social networks and she ended up connecting with me.

She invited me to come visit a networking group she has been active with, so on Wednesday morning, I visited the networking group she belongs to before meeting with a client. I was wearing my “I get my news on Twitter” shirt because I was heading to a Mojiva party in the evening. (For the full story, read Learning about Twitter.)

As I walked into the offices of a midtown law firm, I noticed that being a white male, approximately fifty years of age, I matched the demographic. Yet lacking the fine Brooks Brother’s suit, I feared I might not fit in.

When asked what I do, I offered my standard social media consultant sort of line, “I help people tell their stories online”. Unlike the lawyers, financial planners and CPAs that I often see in such settings, these folks did not roll their eyes, scratch their heads or head for the doors. Instead, they asked seemed genuinely interested in how social media could help their businesses. These were principals of small to mid-sized firms, folks struggling day to day with how to survive in the current business environment.

It was a refreshing time and we had some great discussions. I left with a pocket full of business cards to follow-up on, and all the more need to work on my social media customer relationship management system.