First of all, what is a conference? Well, it's a place where you go to meet people in your industry, learn about the latest trends, etc, and for many...drink heavily. So....like college. Building brain cells and killing brain cells all at once. I prefer to focus on the building and forgo the killing as much as possible in any city filled with smog and people.
I spent the evening before the conference sewing the zipper back to the corner of my suitcase since the airline trashed it last time. Fishing line and carpet thread. It ain't pretty but it's darn sturdy.
My flight to San Fran was two pieces. First a small prop plane to take me to the main connecting airport and then the direct flight to SFO. The connecting flight was an hour late so I sat in the airport lounge, drank coffee, and shot the breeze with a local police officer. I was informed by the airport that I would miss my connecting flight so they booked me on a flight later in the PM. They neglected to mention that the flight stopped in Vegas. However, I was in a great mood, was very nice to the flight attendent at the big airport once I arrived, and got a free first-class upgrade. More legroom is good when your over 6'.
The first, twin prop, flight was as usual. That means that it felt like we were going to fall out of the sky, which is exactly why I ride it. The jet flight (airbus 320A) was uneventful except during the layover in Vegas I got bored and went up to the cockpit. The second-in-command was cool and let me hang out in the cockpit, sit in the pilot's seat, and chat until the pilot arrived (I don't think there supposed to do that anymore but, hey, that's why I'm in marketing). When the pilot arrived, he said "Someone took my job! You'll give it back when you find out what it pays." He was a great guy too, expressed apologies that I was stuck on a non-nonstop flight, and chatted for 15 until it was time for the attendents to board passengers. I went back to my seat and relaxed until we landed at SFO. It was nice to see that you can have fun and talk to fellow Americans on an air plane. Maybe the terrorists haven't won. Anyway, not a bad experience considering I was scheduled to land in SF at 11 AM and touched down at 2:44 PM. Oh, and my luggage arrived in once piece!
After a short shuttle ride and a shower in my temporary digs, I left in search of sushi. Good sushi is never far away in SF and I enjoyed some spicy tuna rolls and beef curry at a local Japanese establishment. The noodles in the beef curry were very slick and I was only provided a very deep spoon and a pair of chopsticks. I had to hand-load every noodel into the spoon and then carefully slurp it out, which was frustrating considering that the only food I had eaten all day was a crappy cheese pizza from an airport fast food joint. Either way, the food was good and I was well satisfied.
I adventured around the hotel a bit, as is my tradition in any unknown place. I visited an art gallery that featured some original work by Dali and Picasso, which was interesting, and read a book of blog posts from the front lines in Iraq at a local Borders (war is an excellent way to put the rest of life into perspective). On the way back I watched a street drummer who was apparently in a recent Will Smith movie called Pursuit of Happiness. He had a picture of himself with Will Smith, from a news article, taped to the front of his little setup. He was drumming on water-cooler bottles, pans, buckets and other things and was extremely talented. I watched and chatted with a young couple from FL that had just moved to SF, tipped the street drummer and left to go do my job.
I met with two of our top clients and then caught up with my account rep ("LilPun") from the company hosting the conference ("Host"). Let me interject here that I am leaving this position and am VERY SAD to not be working with my account rep. She is awesome, very capable, and a lot of fun to work with. They visited the hometown recently for an account review and she stopped by our pad and met wifey. This conference has been bittersweet because it's my last hurrah with many of my friends at our partner company.
We went to a local Irish joint to chat for a bit with some clients and finished the evening at Lori's Diner, the local version of something like the waffle house. After a giant burger, at approximately 1AM, I was very ready for the giant bed and abundance of pillows that Hotel Nikko had waiting. My room is nice, the bed is huge and there was a 30-40" plasma screen TV on the wall (which I haven't even turned on). I actually liked my room at the Fairmont, last year, a little better. Mostly because the bathroom had, like, three rooms of it's own and two king size beds. It was huge. I think they screwed up but I wasn't about to complain.
I was up, ironing the suit, at about 8:00, got registered and hit up the welcome presentation. I had to break the news that I'm leaving affiliate marketing to many of my close partners, which was tough. Working with people that speak your language, day in and day out, builds a certain rapport that is hard to abandon. I will miss many people in the affiliate world.
Lunch was a great salad with artichoke hearts and feta cheese, followed by chicken breast with asparagus and rice and a delicious chocolate cheescake thing. "Host" really knows how to do a conference right. More seminars, etc and the education part of the conference was over. I lost the suit in a hurry, in favor of some more comfy duds.
The evening of the event always means a nice networking party. This was no exception. A beautiful view of SF from giant windows on the 25 floor and wonderful food. I must've eaten about 10 california rolls and some cheesy tortillini (spelling?). The food is good but always too rich to eat much. I chatted with LilPun and one of the guys from Wal-Mart who turned out to be super cool. We decided that when we're in Vegas (another conference) we definitely need to go shoot some automatic weapons together(there's a place in Vegas that lets you do that...watch for that in a future post if it works out). Then we decided to head to a little Irish joint (different one) for conversation, since the networking party ended at 8-ish.
Probably 20 people ended up at Lefty O'tools for chatting and bad piano music. they had a sort of all-you-can-eat prime rib bar but I was too full of rich food and slightly ill (remember that I just recovered from the flu and have been stuffing myself with raw fish). I talked with LilPun, Wal-mart and some other folks from Host and agreed to meet some clients tomorrow for brunch or lunch(because I probably won't be outta bed until at least 10). I finally retired at near 2AM and here I am, writing this blog. (PS: The timestamps on these posts are not accurate).
Anyway, for those who've never been, that's a one-day conference in a nutshell. I suggest you enjoy it vicariously. In real life it's a lot of work, names to remember, knowledge and other info to absorb, and very little sleep. There is usually a constant stream of drinking and it's funny to be the guy ordering water at an open bar. Actually, its not that odd to be drinking water or soda since not everyone in the world likes getting plowed.
In many ways, the time you spend talking with people after the conference is more important than anything else that happens. The relationship that forms from casual chat can be more powerful than any official business negotiation. I have close partnerships and friendships that were formed by such chats. Obviously, I also really enjoy learning about people through conversation. So far I chatted with a police officer (intentionally I promise), some pilots and flight attendants, a couple on the SF street, a few bums, lots of conference attendees and most important of all, my lovely wifey by phone.
Well, it's very late. I hope you found my somewhat-long account of my experience interesting. If you didn't, hey, I didn't make you read it. You're the one slacking off at work to read this. I already worked 20 hours today. A giant, pillow laden bed awaits. I might post a picture of my room if I get around to it.
Things I like about SF:
- Very cool architecture and streets. Everything is at a ridiculous angle!
- Cities in general are always beautiful at night
- The smell of the city when you step out of the hotel.
- People on the west coast are generally more relaxed and friendly
- The climate is great. 14 degrees where I left, 50 degrees when I landed. People think I'm crazy for not wearing a coat!
- The trolleys are neat
- I wouldn't want to live here, it's just too big. Other than that my two experiences here in SF have been pleasant.
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1 comment:
Great posting, glad to hear all is going well there and that you're eating great food (made me hungry). I think your wifey will stay the night with us tonight as Jos will be here. Have a safe trip back!
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