Still Got It

I hope regular readers have missed me the last several days.

I’ve been reporting. I do that. I’m a journalist.

Specifically I was reporting on the HIMSS show for ZDNet. HIMSS is the big event in the health care IT world, and I hoped that by learning about the players I could improve the coverage at Healthcare.Zdnet.com, maybe come up with more readers, maybe even justify the faith they placed in me by handing out the beat in the first place.

But there was a second reason for me to drive to Orlando Monday, hustle around the convention center Tuesday and hustle back here to Atlanta on Wednesday.

I wanted to see if I could still do it.

Could I take apart a big event, something outside my comfort zone, hunt down its essential stories, and explain what was happening in clear, simple English? Could I ask the right questions, take good notes, read those notes, write on deadline, and attend the after-show party, without collapsing in a heap?

Fact is I haven’t done much hands-on reporting since the dot-bomb dropped 8 years ago now. Back in the 1990s I was traveling so often I actually had an airline medallion card. Since 2001, nothing. The last event I covered as a reporter was th 2006 Freedom2Connect conference in Washington.

I used to look down on those old-timers who would haunt their old playing fields, trying to prove themselves to themselves. This week, in a way, I was one of them.

I am pleased to report that, for now, I’ve still got it. Whatever it is, whatever this talent is I have for gathering information, parsing it, and delivering it, I can still do it. I didn’t do quite as many stories at this show as I would have back in the day, but on a reporting blog too many stories is actually a bad thing. Do your best story, then another, and another, and another, and your best work winds up buried. No one will find it.

So I paced myself. I got something exclusive Monday (or I was told it was exclusive) so I let that sit for a time while I went out, notebook in hand, to get more. This time I concentrated on the biggest vendors, the most important trends, rather than really trying to see it all, which is what I used to do during my Comdex days.

You can be the judge, but I think I done good. I may have lost a few miles on my fastball, but I pitch better. I can set up readers, and sources. I can get to the heart of the matter. And I’m no longer afraid of being the best at what I do, as I once was. I know I am. So my reporting game has more confidence than it did, more ease, and I’m happier doing it than I was, when I was younger, faster, and (I once thought) smarter.

As a young reporter I was a thrower. Now, at last, I’m a pitcher.

I wasn’t smarter then. I’m smarter now. And I intend to keep on getting smarter, for as long as I can, for as many years as God gives me a mind to learn and fingers to type. And not just for you anymore.

For me.