On the Circuit: Seth Arenstein at the CTAM Summit Washington, D.C. — Obviously, CTAM chief Char Beales has made another deal with the devil, or at least the Weather Channel. Remember the CTAM Summit in Seattle a few years back? The one where the sun shined for days without a hint of the rain that city is famous for?

Folks, this is not what Washington is like in the summer. The average temp is usually about in the mid 80s, instead of the mid 70s that greeted CTAMers Monday morning. And the humidity. Let’s remember, girls and boys, Washington was built on a swamp, so the place gets humid, although you wouldn’t know it if you arrived yesterday. So, Char, whatever you’re doing, keep it up.

Not so cool—at least judging by the chatter among the trade hacks—was the large number of sessions today that were off limits to members of the press and only open to CTAM’s "corporate fund members" who, it seems, now enjoy exclusive sessions as a bonus for their premium CTAM memberships. Nobody supports CTAM and its mission more than we do, but, darn, some of those sessions looked really interesting.

And while there’s no such thing as a free lunch, today’s free lunch was amusing. Just a hoot to see senior cable execs struggling to make sandwiches on a buffet line. Did Dan Rather have to make his own sandwich? • Click here for more commentary by Seth Arenstein »

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