12:07am Presenter Wrangler shows me a text saying that one of our presenters has to cancel for personal reasons. Panic! Relax! Laugh! Step onto patio and talk to other presenter who was going to present on customer service. Ask him if he would be willing to do his investigations presentation in addition to his customer service one. He agrees.
12:20 Return to Settlers of Catan game with fresh cup of hot chocolate. Tell Presenter Wrangler he can stop panicking. Other players look at us quizzically. We explain that we had to replace a presenter.
12:34 Hand off my seat in Settlers marathon to a newly arrived judge and set about cleaning up the mess in my kitchen. Lobster, bison steaks, elote, grilled squash and zucchini, and rice pilaf with wild mushrooms left quite a mess. Gotta love judge cooking!
12:42 Another presenter joins me in the kitchen to go over his presentation. Try to pay attention while loading dishwasher. Make mental notes to require presenters to submit final versions of presentations a month before the conference. Laugh at my own mental note and know that no matter how early they submit them, there will always be last minute changes.
1:08 Soft knock at front door. Open it to receive a huge hug from a soggy presenter arriving late in the rain. So excited to see him. So exhausted from finishing the nametags and signage, cooking dinner, and putting my kids to bed.
1:26 Finally headed to bed! Seven other conference attendees/presenters, 3 kids, 3 cats, and 1 husband/presenter all in bed. Bags, boxes, crates packed and ready to go.
6:48 Noises from upstairs. Darn kids! Tiptoe into kitchen to start coffee. Go upstairs to tell kids to get dressed quietly and not wake judges.
7:00 Alarm Goes Off. Run to bedroom to silence it. See husband sleeping peacefully.
7:04 Quick shower while mentally inventorying everything I packed last night: judge bag, laptop, blue tape, signage, nametags, whiteboard and markers, printer, scotch tape, shoes that a judge left at my house months ago, venue and catering contracts, gum, door prizes, acrylic stands, my shirt, . . .
7:25 Throw on pants, shoes, undershirt. Run to kitchen to make husband's coffee drink. Start more coffee. Look out window and note gloomy rain continues.
7:31 Put on makeup, earrings. Style hair. Put on regional polo.
7:35 Point out fruit and yogurt to hungry judges.
7:38 Argue with children that they must wear clothing. Try to convince 3 year old that 3 shirts does not equal a complete outfit.
7:42 Help children with breakfast. Administer antibiotics to 3 year old for ear infection. Give pill to 5 year old with bladder condition. Remind children that eating cereal requires a bowl. Children ask why they cannot just eat it off the table.
8:03 Load car with help from judges. Grumble about gloomy rain and wet stuff. Conference staff and some presenters head to venue. (The rest will follow later.)
8:07 Set off! Enjoy the few moments alone in my car to organize my thoughts and prepare for the day. Try not to hydroplane on wet roads. Make mental note that no time of year is 'safe' to host an event in Texas that does not have potential for heatstroke deaths, blizzards, or flash floods.
8:27 Arrive at venue. Wonder why 2 police cars are parked at the entrance. Encounter a conference staff member arriving and unloading his stuff.
8:29 Park car under covered loading area between 2 police cars. Ask a presenter I walking past to help me unload my car. Grab a luggage cart and start piling stuff on it. Send friend to drive it into conference area.
8:35 Greet Hotel Manager. He tells me that Catering Manager is going to be late if she arrives at all due to weather. Secretly hope we have food for lunch.
8:40 Walk into conference area with Hotel Manager to see that prefunction space looks great. While the registration table is not the horseshoe I requested, it will work. The coffee, tea, and water station is set, stocked, and ready. Request an additional table to use for several other needs since the registration area is small. Hotel Manager agrees.
8:43 Step into the ballroom to see that only 2/3 of the room is set. The hotel has pulled an airwall and set only part of the space that we agreed to in the contract. Panic! Ask Hotel Manager. He says that our number is small enough to all fit in the smaller space. I agree that it is, but that we had planned 3 tracks of content and planned to use all 3 sections for our afternoon breakout sessions. Secretly grumble that just because you can shove more people in a small space, it doesn't mean that you should! Look into the 3rd section and see that is is set classroom style and will still work for the afternoon. Tell Hotel Manager that it will be perfect just like it is and do not ask if we can use it, but simply tell him that we will. Remind him of the slight change to the time we will need the airwall pulled in the first rooms and ask for some table skirting for the prefunction table before we part ways.
8:52 Verify that my staff is mostly present and seem to be doing setup things.
8:53 Flip my laptop open to send updated attendee list to staff member doing check in. Grumble that I forgot to get the internet password from the hotel.
8:57 Get a call from a staff member who is at Starbucks and wants to bring me hot chocolate. Remember that I have the best conference staff ever.
9:01 Get a text from an attendee apologizing for not being able to attend.
9:05 See that my staff members have opened the registration table. Right on time. I love these guys!
9:12 Field a request from the Streaming Manager that he needs help with getting the internet set up. Set off to find Hotel Manager and ask him to help.
9:26 Move my stuff to the newly set up table in the prefunction area that will act as my 'show office' as well as a distribution point for regional judge polos in the morning, and a pick up station for Rules Lawyer promos during the lunch break.
9:31 Pull out signage and begin setting it up: drop-ins for the breakout rooms, notes in acrylic stands labeling the pickup table and registrations, and of course the "In Bolas's Clutches" signs for the restroom doors. Our RC suggested the idea and it was too funny not to do it.
9:57 I've greeted about a million people, trying to make a personal connection with each one showing appreciation that they chose to attend, answering questions, directing traffic. We realize that we have fielded a large number of rain related delays due to flash flooding and decide to delay the conference 10 minutes to allow as many people as possible to arrive before we begin. While I generally prefer to respect people's time and start on time, the severity of the weather and the tighter than planned room would lead to a large number of people trying to enter late and would cause a lot of disruption.
9:59 Streaming Manager hands me a microphone pack. Struggle to attach the belt clip and finally manage to arrange the microphone on my lapel in such a way that it doesn’t cause the front of my shirt to look lopsided.
10:02 Check the room. It's filling up. Wish for the extra space, but decide that the smaller space allows better viewing for powerpoints at the front of the room.
10:05 Confirm that everything is ready. Confirm that RC is ready for keynote.
10:10 Get the thumbs up from Streaming Manager, flip on my microphone, and greet the attendees. Open by thanking everyone for attending, especially with traveling in the rain. Mention that we have decided to do announcements and door prizes after the first speaker and conclude by handing it off to our RC for his keynote.
10:12 Drink water. Check in at registration. Check in with Presenter Wrangler.
10:15 Verify with the judge who coordinated the shirt order that things are ready for his shirt distribution plan.
10:22 Meet with Hotel Manager and finally arrived Catering Manager to sign final contracts and payments. Remind them about lunch and 2 special food needs (GF and vegan).
10:34 Realize that breakfast and a hot chocolate are waiting for me in my 'office.' Have no idea what wonderful humans did this, but appreciate them a ton. Mental note: best staff ever!
10:41 Resume greeter duties connecting with judges and helping them get seated with as little disruption as possible. Even catch a few snippets of the keynote.
11:00 Realize that Keynote is going to go long. Mentally try to calculate how long based on my proofreading of the slides and how much I know is left. Groan.
11:10 No sign of stopping despite my cueing.
11:15 Less subtle nudge.
11:21 Finally done.
11:22 Take the microphone, thank RC, ask conference staff to come forward for door prize distribution.
11:24 Staffer draws names out of a Whataburger bag and we hand out a variety of playmats, t-shirts, judge swag, and regional swag.
11:35 Ask the entire conference staff to step forward and I ask a local judge/artist to come up as well. They present the staff with the amazing custom playmats I had them design as a staff gift.
11:40 Introduce the speaker for our general session and hand it over to him.
11:42 Drink more hot chocolate.
11:57 Sit down with TO for regionals to go over plans for that event.
12:20 Escape never ending conversation to check on lunch. Relief there is food. Panic at how little food there is.
12:25 Find out that Catering Manager has left. Grumble.
12:27 Find the single hotel employee in charge of setting up our food. He does not speak English. Switch to Spanish and learn that he has only set out about ⅓ of the food and will be replenishing it as people eat. Suggest he set out more. Secretly think about how much judges eat. Worry about food. He has no idea what I am talking about when I mention the meals for folks with dietary needs. Convince him to make me some salads.
12:30 Duck into the ballroom just as the presentation is moving to the last part. Good!
12:37 Get 1 salad. Hand deliver it to vegan so he will have lunch.
12:45 Presentation wraps up. Make announcements about lunch including the group photo afterwards. Attendees beeline for the food table. Fear for the life of that 1 poor guy trying to replenish the food.
12:47 Watch attendees load plates with gigantic sandwiches, potato salad, chips, pickles, and cookies. Remember that I haven’t eaten breakfast yet.
12:52 Socialize with attendees welcoming those who I missed earlier. Answer questions about the event, the region, the weather, . . .
1:20 See that there is not enough food. I knew it wasn’t going to be enough when I saw it earlier!
1:37 Locate Hotel Manager and demand more food. He grudgingly complies and the one server delivers additional sandwich makings.
1:33 Ask the photographer where we should do group photo. Agree on outside since rain has started to clear.
1:45 Make announcement about group photo outside. Since attendees were eating at the banquet tables from the morning sessions, this outdoor break lets us reset the room into 2 smaller rooms for our afternoon breakouts.
1:47 Hotel staff pulls airwall right on time. Relief!
1:55 Run outside to jump into group picture with other staff members.
1:56 Shoo everyone back inside for afternoon breakout sessions.
2:00 Sigh with relief as breakouts start on time. Contemplate sitting down for a minute. Decide to check on lunch leftovers. Grumble. No cookies left.
2:37 See a judge unconscious in a chair in the lobby. Panic! Verify that he is asleep, not dead. Remember that he drove a carload of folks who came in from far away. Decide that he needs the sleep.
2:50 Check all 3 breakouts to ensure end times. Am pleasantly surprised.
2:54 Am asked by a judge if we can talk. Agree to chat with him during next session.
3:01 Next breakouts started on time.
3:04 Sit down with judge who wants to talk. Discuss his concern and strategies to work on his issue. Come up with a concrete plan for him moving forward. Agree on follow-up steps.
3:32 Slip into a room to listen to part of a presentation. Feel the tension in the room and know that things are not going well. Stay a listen a bit. See that the presenter has lost control of his audience. Note that some judges in the audience seem perplexed, annoyed, or lost. Mental note: Look over this presenter’s evaluations and work with him before he presents again.
3:39 Prepare for afternoon break as presentations end. Verify that RC is set to hand out Rules Lawyers during break. Remind hotel staff to refresh beverage station.
4:02 Accept feedback on conference from eager attendee.
4:07 More greeter duties. Talk to lots of judges about lots of stuff.
4:15 Relief when break ends and judges all go to next breakout session.
Insert cheesy montage of judges, breakouts, and paperwork.
5:47 Check with conference staff. Presenter Wrangler and staffer have set up check-out table to distribute folis. Remember my staff is the best.
6:05 Pop in to each breakout room to make quick announcement about checking out and receiving foils. Manage to catch each one as it ends.
6:14 Thank attendees as they leave. Follow up on earlier questions and make plans for future events.
6:32 Relieved that most have left. Staff breaking down rooms.
6:34 Pack up signage.
6:37 Start loading car with printer, whiteboard, nametag holders to reuse, etc.
6:48 Verify that rooms are spotless and staff is done.
6:50 Finalize staff dinner location and send Presenter Wrangler to get a table.
6:54 Locate Hotel Manager to say goodbye. He tells me surreptitiously that some of my judges spent the afternoon drinking at the bar. Sigh. Hope it was during lunch break. Hope they weren’t driving home.
7:12 Hop into my car. Wonderful silence. Head to staff dinner.
7:28 Arrive at restaurant to find three times expected number of humans. Turns out some of my staff were traveling in full cars. Sigh at yet another loud, crowded space.
7:30 Relax and enjoy the company, the food, and the satisfaction of a conference well done.
