As a journalist I have had many enjoyable breakfasts, lunches and dinners with PR professionals of ages ranging from their early twenties to early sixties. I always worry, though, that it must be terribly boring for the younger PROs who are stuck with my company for an hour or two. I just don’t do the same things they do. Clubbing, getting drunk and staying up until the early hours midweek are options for me. I just don’t feel like taking them. I am not saying that all younger PROs are wild party goers as this is obviously not true, but they do generally spend their time off differently from how I spend mine. I have yet to be told stories of exciting bridge evenings for example (and no PRO has ever begged to hear about mine!). If I meet up with someone who has been working in PR for decades, there is more common ground. Apart from being able to discuss the dramatic changes in our working lives, we also have more shared life experiences to compare, from having kids to not having proper pensions. None of this should matter of course, because we aren’t supposed to be meeting to chat about ourselves. We’re supposed to be talking about work. However, the point of meeting up is also to get to know each other. I don’t want to go on about my life too much as that’s dull for someone who is going through a different life stage. So I always ask whoever I am meeting lots and lots of questions, and sometimes they must feel I am interrogating them. So any ideas for topics of conversation so that I don’t come across as a mad woman or a bore are much appreciated! I just wonder if it’s generally the case that PROs and journalists prefer meeting up with people of roughly the same age. And if this is so, whether PR firms think about this before deciding who to send along to particular meetings …