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Spent the last four days at a museum conference. Fun and productive, but exhausting.
Some highlights:
- Union contractors suck. Booth setup should have taken an hour, max. I was there from 10:15am to 5:30pm. I particularly enjoyed the part where the AV guys left to go on break for 45 minutes, 30 seconds before finishing the job. I think my account rep was about ready to cry every time she saw me coming by the end. I have a thick stack of the sheets we got each time we complained.
- The difference in evening events was astonishing. We paid the same for each one. One involved an open bar, desserts, and performing groups scattered through the museum. Another had recorded music played over the loudspeakers, a single drink ticket, cheese, and cucumber slices. A different one had beer and wine only, but unlimited, and what they called "appetizers", I called a full meal. Plus themed musicians - a large band in the main atrium, an amazing singer with an accordian in the French impressionist gallery, a Middle Eastern group in the Islamic hall...While another on the same night apparently was serving Baked Lays and the music was provided by a cd player in the corner. How did these people start with the same admission fee and have such wildly different levels of quality?
- Really cool stuff from other vendors: liquid nitrogen ice cream-making at the booth, a set of playground equipment that also could be considered an art installation or an introduction to physics, an amazing fire suppression system, and two live fruit bats. (Very large.)
- The other junior member of the team and I crawled out of bed to be at a 7:30 breakfast meeting the night after a party that ran until 11 - and the senior members totally ditched us and slept in. Grr.
- Worst Starbucks barista ever. Tried to refuse to make oatmeal because they were out of bowl lids (my boss managed to convince her to use, I don't know, one of the coffee cups), was totally useless about making the drinks for the line that had backed up into the hotel lobby, dumped the milk on the floor because she couldn't be bothered to hold the caddy upright instead of dangling it while she complained, and spent most of the time complaining and threatening to quit (my boss's comment- "I'm sure they'll have no trouble replacing you").
- I'm pretty sure I was being used as booth bait, to distract the folks who want to yammer forever, but don't actually have any business to conduct. The very earnest grad student was kind of endearing. The lecherous old man who kept winking at me, less so.
Unfortunately, my body's hopelessly confused now, with the irregular eating and sleeping schedules and the total lack of a weekend. Gonna be a long week.
Some highlights:
- Union contractors suck. Booth setup should have taken an hour, max. I was there from 10:15am to 5:30pm. I particularly enjoyed the part where the AV guys left to go on break for 45 minutes, 30 seconds before finishing the job. I think my account rep was about ready to cry every time she saw me coming by the end. I have a thick stack of the sheets we got each time we complained.
- The difference in evening events was astonishing. We paid the same for each one. One involved an open bar, desserts, and performing groups scattered through the museum. Another had recorded music played over the loudspeakers, a single drink ticket, cheese, and cucumber slices. A different one had beer and wine only, but unlimited, and what they called "appetizers", I called a full meal. Plus themed musicians - a large band in the main atrium, an amazing singer with an accordian in the French impressionist gallery, a Middle Eastern group in the Islamic hall...While another on the same night apparently was serving Baked Lays and the music was provided by a cd player in the corner. How did these people start with the same admission fee and have such wildly different levels of quality?
- Really cool stuff from other vendors: liquid nitrogen ice cream-making at the booth, a set of playground equipment that also could be considered an art installation or an introduction to physics, an amazing fire suppression system, and two live fruit bats. (Very large.)
- The other junior member of the team and I crawled out of bed to be at a 7:30 breakfast meeting the night after a party that ran until 11 - and the senior members totally ditched us and slept in. Grr.
- Worst Starbucks barista ever. Tried to refuse to make oatmeal because they were out of bowl lids (my boss managed to convince her to use, I don't know, one of the coffee cups), was totally useless about making the drinks for the line that had backed up into the hotel lobby, dumped the milk on the floor because she couldn't be bothered to hold the caddy upright instead of dangling it while she complained, and spent most of the time complaining and threatening to quit (my boss's comment- "I'm sure they'll have no trouble replacing you").
- I'm pretty sure I was being used as booth bait, to distract the folks who want to yammer forever, but don't actually have any business to conduct. The very earnest grad student was kind of endearing. The lecherous old man who kept winking at me, less so.
Unfortunately, my body's hopelessly confused now, with the irregular eating and sleeping schedules and the total lack of a weekend. Gonna be a long week.
