MattCreamer.com

I’m now in Phoenix, holed up in the Arizona Biltmore, the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired resort compound, in anticipation of the Association of National Advertisers conference, which kicks off later today. Should be a great event this year. Speakers include Al Gore, Steve Ballmer, AT&T marketing chief Wendy Clark, P&G’s Jim Stengel, not to mention a lot of agency chiefs and some interesting wild cards , like a discussion of private equity’s involvement with brands.

But that’s for later.

My current hell is trying to find a power charger for my Apple MacBook. I left mine at home and attempts to replace it before my battery drains out sometime today have been a massive failure. Hotel’s no help; local Best Buys don’t carry Apple products; don’t have a car here, so I can’t troll Radio Shacks looking for one. I did try the concierge service that comes with my American Express Platinum card. After a few hours of searching, they located one in Chandler, Arizona, about 15 miles from Phoenix. The extremely helpful and friendly concierge–an Ad Age reader, no less!–set up up a plan where the hotel would send a driver to pick it up, charging me for transportation both ways and, of course, the price of the charger. A total of about $200. So I can charge my laptop battery. Uh, no thanks. I’ve just resorted to having my girlfriend overnight mine. It won’t get here until Friday, which means I’ll be resorting to the business center in the meantime, unless–wink, wink–someone lends me theirs……

I love Macs, but this is really one of those moments when it would be nice to have a Dell or something…