If you like travel and spending time with really smart people, which I do, my job is perfect. I crisscross the world producing conferences for Harvard Business School Publishing, and that brings me together with top management thought leaders and executives from a wide range of companies. I get to hear what they are thinking, what has them excited, and what keeps them up at night. I’m going to try to share the benefits of those encounters with you in this space – and then you can weigh in on them.

This discussion is called Heard in the Suite – a bad play on Heard on the Street meant to reflect my frequent travel (rarely staying in a suite may I add) – and I’m offering a $25 Amazon.com gift card to whoever comes up with a better handle. I’ll be covering three main areas: (1) the critical issues, best practices, and emerging trends in management that I hear as I roam from city to city; (2) the trials, joys, and discoveries of business travel; and (3) the challenges of managing a business unit (as that is my day job).

Expect everything from candid conversations with business leaders to restaurant reviews. This spring I’ll be traveling from Calgary to Atlanta, San Francisco to New York, and Washington to Hamburg, with many other stops in between. We’ll be exploring competing on analytics, HR and the innovative organization, strengths-based management, business preparation for pandemics, supply chain and global trade issues, and managing transitions to name just a few topics.

We all spend at least a third of our day at work. I believe that the time should be challenging and rewarding no matter what your field or position. If it isn’t, it is time for you to move on. My philosophy is simple: make a difference, big or small, and enjoy the ride. Seize the opportunities around you and leave the world a better place.

I hope that I’ll meet a few of you along the way. (I’ll be the one madly typing on the laptop at Starbucks.) Even if we don’t meet face-to-face, I want to hear from you. I’m a discussion leader, not a columnist – so let’s make this a dialogue. And if you have any good restaurant tips, send them my way. Let the conversation begin: Do you have an outrageous business travel story to share?

Here’s a “suite” one of mine: I arrived late in L.A. with two colleagues one night a few years back. I had booked us into the Argyle (pre-renovation it was a reasonably priced and interesting Deco gem; now it's the beautiful The Sunset Tower Hotel) but when we tried to check in there was only one room held for us. I like these colleagues, but not enough to share a room. The registration clerk fretted for a few minutes and then moved two of us to suites. I wound up in a townhouse suite right out of a film noir classic – two-story ceilings with two-story windows looking out on a patio with amazing views of L.A., a curving staircase leading up to an expansive sleeping loft and master bathroom. It was the kind of room where, had I been in that noir film, I would have awakened to a dead starlet, a tough talking copper, and a lot of explaining to do. Unfortunately, I was alone and had to check out early for a breakfast meeting. I had fewer than 12 hours to pretend I was Howard Hughes.