Serendipidity - Live from Beirut and London

The Hay Festival has packed its bags and left Beirut. Yes, that Beirut, the exciting Levantine capital west of the Beqaa Valley. Yes, that Hay Festival – Hay-on-Wye. From the Wye Valley. Why Beirut?  Possibly because it’s as exciting as you get without being in Mogadishu. That would be too exciting. The success, if not the very purpose of the Festival, is, according to Hay's Peter Florence, is in large part the creation of serendipity -  ‘of bumping into your favourite author at the bar’. It is manufacturing ‘opportunities where accidents can happen’.

A lot of us are in that business now. This is serendipity as product. Bringing people face to face in the Age of Facebook is the big unseen monster business of the internet era. And it's expensive. Expensive ticket, expensive time, expensive to travel too. But as they used to say to say of education, if you think that's expensive, try the alternative. 

In June this year I was getting paid to produce an award event in London's Park Lane when I was asked at the bar 'can you do one of these for me?' And that way of doing business carries on even when the phones don't ring.

Caveats:

Make sure you have something people want or you will soon become poor.

If you are poor, it's tougher and the winnings often to go those with deep pockets. But you've got a church hall, haven't you?

And ...once the whole world catches on there there is no competitive advantage. Start a new party. 

And Beirut probably is cheaper than London.

The photograph of the Temple of Bacchus, Baalbeck, Lebanon is by Varun Shiv Kapur reproduced under Creative Commons licence.