New York, Jan. 16, 2006 – What better way to celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday than talking merchandising with rich business executives? Sean “Diddy” Combs was late, filling his empty seat on the dais just in the nick of time for a merchandising seminar at the exclusive Harmonie Club on East 60th Street in Manhattan. “I’m late, but I made it. I saw this on my calendar”, Diddy told the group of retail and fashion execs, “and a couple of hours ago I was in Florida. But I came here, where it’s cold as a m….. That’s how much I love fashion.”

While other speakers talked fourth quarter profits, the Sean John clothing founder talked about himself, and we learned that Diddy's one-time aspiration to play football was waylaid by a broken leg, that as a boy he bought patterns for his seamstress grandmother, and that he got his fashion flair from his gay uncle.

Other attendees included Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Nike VP of global apparel Mindy Grossman, Neiman Marcus CEO Burton Tansky and Esprit CEO Heinz Krogner. Of course, the executive we most easily related to was Syms discount chain king Sy Syms.