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To say I’m a fan of Diane Keaton’s is an understatement (I did, after all, write her into my book!). Needless to say I couldn’t wait to see her/hear her/admire her at the Unique Lives & Experiences speaker series in Toronto last night. She didn’t disappoint. She opened her life and her heart and shared her unique life with the full-house of mostly women. And we loved it!

Of course she answered questions about her life as an actress (the turning point in her career was making Annie Hall with Woody Allen, she didn’t see The Godfather until decades after it was made, and, yes, Jack is a better kisser than Keanu…). 

But she also led us into her personal world with stories supported by old photographs and film footage of her growing up, her amazing, late mother Dorothy Keaton Hall as she battled Alzheimer’s, and her two young children. In fact, she talked about how photos played such an important role in her family’s life and continue to do so. It reminded me of a project I worked on several years back when I was the publicist for Lexmark Canada (a ha, you say, finally a link to tech!).

We were launching a photo printer that had a built in CD-burner, enabling people to easily save their images. In our research we had learned that while the advent of digital cameras meant people were capturing more images than ever (with no film to buy, why not?), many weren’t printing or saving them. They were simply leaving the shots on their camera, figuring they’d archive/print them on a rainy day. But here’s the thing: As the number of images snowball, organizing and preserving these memories can be a daunting task.

We heard from a sociologist who said we digitalites risked become a forgotten generation. It makes sense. If we don’t print and/or archive our digital photos properly, what will our children or children’s children have to remember us by? Anyhow, not to get all wistful or anything, I’m just saying it’s something worth thinking about. At least Ms. Keaton and I think so anyway.