Victoria thought the Paris trip was stressful….the universe said- Challenge Accepted!
After Paris, the next trip on the workshop world tour was Toronto. And aside from me forgetting that I booked a red eye and making some last minute catering arrangements once I arrived, the event went great! Toronto was stunning, I loved the city and can’t wait to visit again. London, however, London was another example in what can go wrong…
The corporate offices in London were not big enough for the amount of people we were expecting for this workshop, so I found a ‘we-work’ type of space within the same larger office complex that offered meeting space as well as catering. The space looked great online and the communication from the team during planning was fantastic. But since it wasn’t actually in the company’s offices, when I arrived in London, I stopped by the space to meet with the site’s event coordinator to ensure we would be all set for the event the next day.
We went over the layout of the room (which wasn’t set up for us just yet- but would be by the night crew), the tech that my clients would need, the timing of when I would be arriving the next day and other details. The event coordinator wouldn’t be on site the next day, she was talking the day for a vacation, but she promised the room was being set up this evening and the site manager would be there at 8 am when my team would arrive. Everything seemed perfect. I was beyond happy and confident.
The next day, my client and I arrive at the building, and the doors to the office space are locked. The main building receptionist can’t help since it’s a private company. She has the same contact information I do. I knock on the doors for a while, I call the numbers I have from the event coordinator, I email all the contacts I have. No one is around. A few people who rent full time offices, or had subscriptions to the work space in the venue show up and use their code/keycard to unlock the door, but didn’t feel comfortable letting us in (TOTALLY FAIR- I asked one person, they said no, good enough for me).
Then, people who are here for our event start showing up…while we are still just standing around…I explain we are just waiting to get in and try to check in people who are already here…
Finally a little past 8:30 am, the barista/catering person (who was the only person in the entire space at the time) came to the door. I explained the situation and while she knew we were supposed to be there because she was in charge of putting out the food, she didn’t know what else was going on.
Since I had been in the space the day before, I knew what room we had rented and guided the team downstairs to there. It looked exactly the same as when I had seen it the day before! The night crew hadn’t done ANYTHING. The projectors weren’t set up to the direction we needed, there was no food in the room, because there wasn’t a buffet table. Chairs were stacked in the corners; the projector screen wasn’t on the same wall as the projector was presenting. The tech adaptors that we needed weren’t there. I may have lost my manners for a split second and cursed in front of my client. It didn’t phase him thank goodness.
We were supposed to be starting soon….and we still had things on the list to do! Set up the pop up banners, check in the attendees, get the food set up, FIND the tech adaptors, set up the adapters….
Since we already had people who came in the door with us, I was so far behind in checking people in. My laptop’s battery wasn’t going to last much longer, and there was NO one in the venue besides the catering lady and a few other locals who use the space for their daily work. My client took over setting up the pop up banner and seeing to what he could figure out in the room for the projector. Attendees started taking seats and chatting amongst themselves. I went to the cabinets I saw the event coordinator pull adapters and cords from the day before and grabbed everything I could. I even knocked on random office doors and opened them to see if they had anything that looked useful.
I set myself up on a table upstairs and get to checking people in as they come in the front door and send them down to the room. People are also coming and asking where the food is, since it’s supposed to be in the room. I tell them it’s coming but not to eat the stuff that had appeared in the main hall room, since that wasn’t for us (there was another meeting happening in one of the areas). As I’m sitting at the main door checking people in, a work crew arrives. They are here to work in one of the offices on the main floor. Since I’m talking to people coming in and directing them around, they assume I work there. They start asking where the bathrooms are, and general stuff- no biggie. But then they start asking if they can prop doors open (sure?) Borrow this trolley they found in a closet (yes?) Move things around in an office (Yeah, that seems reasonable?) Take things off the shelves and move bigger things out into the main room…at this point I was like- yup, I’m in charge- SURE! No one else is here! Nice guys, very respectful and their attention to detail when taking plants and décor off walls was amazing.
I finally get some time to find the catering person, and ask her when the food and coffee will be put out, she said that she already has put it out. After asking where exactly, since it was supposed to be in the room with the attendees, she says that since there wasn’t the table set up, she put it out in the main hall room….yup, the stuff I’ve been telling people NOT to touch, was actually ours…so they could have been snacking and sipping this whole time. *d’oh* Not her fault at all, she didn’t have the space, (since the night crew hadn’t set up the room properly) so she put it where she could. I just didn’t have the chance to ask, nor for her to tell me- since she was the only person in the entire venue and the regulars were asking for coffee (which is her real job, being a barista, not an event coordinator, she needs a raise). A quick announcement to the group and they are distracted by getting a treat and caffeine.
It’s past 9:30 am now, so we are running quite late. Still no word from the event coordinator or the manager.
My client ended up having to stand on a chair to connect a computer directly into the projector because the cords at the presentation docket weren’t connecting to that projector (It’s so complicated, I promise you, we tried everything we could, these are tech people- we aren’t dumb!)
Somehow, eventually, my clients get things working, as best as they can anyway, and starts the presentation. It’s almost 11 am before the manager arrives and comes to find me while I’m sitting outside the room wrapping up reports. Apparently he got a new phone and hadn’t set up the calendar and emails properly yet…I was upset, but I tried to be as kind as I could. I told him that I am embarrassed in front of my client and so should he, and this is an international company that they have just seriously irritated. I was SO CONFIDNET in his team and location yesterday and this turned into an absolute wreck. He tried to give a few flippant answers as to why some of our issues weren’t significant, but overall was incredibly apologetic and understanding. After all was said and done, he didn’t charge us for rentals, just a portion of the food.
During the entire conversation with the manager, I was thinking back to the story Melissa told me about her UK stop on a bus tour when she was just starting out in events. She thought she had booked a conference room at the offices she needed, but the team at the offices all assumed that they were “getting on the bus”. Her response to them makes me laugh every time- ‘We speak the same language, there isn’t a language barrier here, how did this happen?!’ …Murphey’s Law- if it can go wrong, it will. Her event worked out great of course, just another funny story….
To all the attendees, if you ever see this- you were all lovely and I hope you learned something cool! If not….I hope it at least gave you a fun story to tell about the hectic morning before a workshop you once attended. Yes the American was overwhelmed, but I was also thrilled (at the end).