As usual, Carl Terzian last Monday morning headed off for the Regency Club in Westwood, where he has held morning breakfast meetings for years. But he quickly realized that was the first day the Regency was closed for good.

“My car drives itself to the Regency,” Terzian quipped. “I had to find my way to the office.”

Terzian, of Carl Terzian Associates, is the public relations specialist who’s locally known as the guy who eschews contracts and makes only handshake agreements. But he’s even better known for holding back-to-back-to-back networking meetings numbering about 800 a year, or averaging close to four a day. About 70 percent of those meetings were at the Regency, the private club. Many of the rest are held at the Jonathan Club in downtown Los Angeles.

After the Regency announced it would close, Terzian got busy looking for a new Westside venue. He was wooed for his business in recent weeks, and he ended up making a deal with the Beverly Hilton. He’ll start holding meetings there this week.

“They have some nice rooms,” Terzian said of the Hilton. “And they made me a good offer.”

Is the deal in writing?

“No. Handshake.”

‘History in the Making’

Talk about good timing for a historic event.

Gary Toebben, chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and his wife, Janice, landed in Washington, D.C., last Sunday night and arrived at their hotel about midnight – moments after President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden.

As the television cameras panned around the White House and tracked a swelling crowd, Toebben said to his wife, “We’ve got to head over there. This is history in the making.”

So the Toebbens walked 20 minutes or more to the White House as cars honked and people streamed in. Toebben said one car was blasting the Lee Greenwood song “God Bless the U.S.A.”

“When we got there, it was an amazing feeling,” he said. “Everyone in the crowd was so proud and excited.”

The crowd was also very young – mostly college age.

“I looked around, and Janice and I seemed to be the oldest ones there,” said Toebben, 63.

The couple stayed in front of the White House about 30 minutes and then headed back to the hotel. After all, he was there for the chamber’s annual lobbying trip, and he had to work the next day. But he didn’t get much sleep.

“Cars were honking all night,” he said.

Staff reporter Howard Fine contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].