Early this morning, I attended the annual Fleet Week Breakfast sponsored by General Atomics. The breakfast was hosted at the Admiral Kidd Club on the Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center overlooking San Diego Harbor.

During the mixing period prior to the speech, I was introduced to Captain Mike Allen, Chief of Staff for Navy Region Southwest, who sat across the table from me. I also discussed entrepreneurship and other business topics with Jim of DRS Technologies, whose MBA is in Organizational Development.

Opening the program was Lisa Richards, who twenty-plus years ago established Hospitality, which operates Picnic People of Southern California. As the 2006 Chairwoman of Fleet Week San Diego and President on the Board of Directors, Lisa introduced the speaker — The Honorable B. J. Penn, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment. Penn paid tribute to and thanked military men and women for serving in defense of the nation and as volunteers for community improvement.

In retrospect, the event was solid with an attendance of around 250 people. Being an entertainer and a marketer , I’m more attracted to events that have a little more pep, but excitement is not why people attend these socials.