The London Trip - Another Victoria Adventure

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).

Go and Fail- Victoria’s Paris Trip

Allow me to set the scene…. It was the year 2019, November. COVID-19 wasn’t yet the global pandemic that it would become. I was being given more responsibility in my job and would be managing more than a few workshops and events on my own during a world tour for my client in tech…needless to say…I was beyond nervous. To the point where it was affecting my attitude and Melissa asked me what was wrong and what I needed. I told her I was unsure that I was prepared enough, and afraid that I had made critical mistakes in setting up the events that I wouldn’t know about until we were on site and they couldn’t be fixed. She had me go through all the worst scenarios in my head that could happen (she even indulged my crazy weather and freak accident fears) and had a comment or opinion on them all to help me manage. Then she said the strangest thing- “Just go and fail. That is all I expect from you.”

My gut reaction was confusion and panic. I had grown up in a family where the saying “Practice makes Perfect” was actually '“Perfect Practice makes Perfect”. It was drilled into me that you should do things correctly, perfectly, each time, anything else was not good enough. How else are you supposed to learn to do it properly? My mind went into a spin- “She thinks I’m going to fail.” “I’m not ready for this.” “Why would she tell me to fail?!” “I’m going to fail.” (Plus a few others-but you get the gist, I’m sure) Never in my life has it been an option to not be perfect or succeed. Flaws are failures, failures are unacceptable.

She quickly followed that statement up with “You’ve done everything you can-everything I would have, everything I told you to do and more, if something goes wrong, I have full faith and trust in you and your ability to figure it out. Failing is how you learn; I have your back.” In my 30 years of life and decade of cooperate jobs, I’ve never had that kind of support.

Was I stressed out at times? Oh yes- but just wait till you hear why, and why I love telling this story now.

Pre-Trip:

The workshops that I was managing needed pop-up banners to alert attendees where to check in and where our room was located. Those were supposed to arrive at my house in Seattle before I left for the first event in Paris. I would come home for a day from Orlando (where the main launch event took place), repack for Paris with the pop-up banners and head off 21 hours later. If you guessed that they never made it, you would be correct! The production team then put in an order to a Paris printer, promising they would have them delivered to the corporate office in Paris at 8:00 am on the event day. That meant arriving in time for the 8:30 am check in for the workshop that started at 9:00 am. YEESH!

Pre-Event:

After an uneventful, but lovely, flight (that now has Iceland on my ‘Must Visit’ list) me and the team arrived in Paris. Coincidentally, it was a national holiday for both the U.S and France, but theirs was a much bigger deal. Banks closed, offices closed, parades, memorials covered in flowers - the whole thing. Therefore… there was a high probability that there was no one in the corporate offices that we were using to host our workshop. However, I thought I would take my chances on there being a skeleton crew that would be able to let me into the offices to get my security clearance and to review the rooms for the workshops. My first concern was that I had booked room in the wrong office building. I wanted to make sure that I had sent the correct address to the workshop attendees in the invite (and send out an emergency update if I had). After dropping off my bags and checking in with my client, I jumped in a cab outside the hotel and headed to the office.

Well- the address was the right one! But of course, the offices were locked, and the gates to the main courtyard area had been rolled shut as well. There was a pedestrian opening into the courtyard, so I tried my luck. There were access points on the doors for you to tap your ID card to get in, but since I hadn’t been given access to this location, they wouldn’t open for me. I still tapped my card on all of them, lots of times…(I was expecting to get some sort of security guards attention to be honest). A man was outside a door smoking, so I asked if he worked at the company I needed. He didn’t…he worked at a smaller company that shared the larger complex. I decided to walk around the building, to see if there was a side entrance or service door I could find. I found a side street along the building with a guard box to control entry to the parking lot, but no one was in there, so I just kept walking through. I could smell sawdust and hear woodworking sounds, so I followed that into a workshop with 2 men who seemed very confused that an American lady just popped in and asked if they knew if there was anyone in the corporate buildings or if they could point me in the way of security. “UHHHHH- non…” with some side glances was all I got before I decided to cut my losses and head back to the hotel.

Getting back to the hotel kicked off a whole other set of concerns. There was no taxi’s (no one was working, so why would they be there?! And my Uber app wasn’t finding any cars nearby. The small back streets where the offices and complex are located were deserted- who would need a ride now, today? It was November in Paris, which in and of itself is so lovely-but it was late afternoon at this point. I just wanted to take a nap and eat and shower- I had been on 2 planes,2 custom lines, on site at a trade show for almost 2 weeks before this and the only food I’ve eaten was on the plane or from an airport kiosk. I wanted a glass of wine! Not to mention I was still in my flying outfit essentially, just with a raincoat, so my little ballet flats were useless in the damp, cold and dirt. My whole body hurt. I was almost about to have my client send me a car from the hotel. But! Just as I was about to take the metro that I saw a sign for, an Uber was available, and I was able to get back to the hotel. He got 5 stars and a big tip in app and in cash (I am American- let me give you money when you make my life better please and thank you).

After a room service dinner in my room, with my much desired and earned, glass of French wine, I fell asleep so hard that when I woke up 2 hours later at 9 pm, I thought it was 9 AM! Terrified that I had slept through my alarms and my clients would be furious. I was putting on clothes while trying to put together a text to my client, apologizing, when I realized my mistake. - No missed calls? - Why hadn’t they called me?  - - -  OH- whew! That was a great 2 hours of sleep apparently. Yes-I slept very well that night, but I set a BUNCH of alarms for the next morning just to be safe….

*What I learned- check the holiday & event calendars for where you are hosting events.

Workshop Day!

We made it to the office- (where I almost got hit by a bike getting out of the Uber with my clients- funny thing, the next time we got out on a bike path, the app warned us….) and there are a lot of people milling around the front doors and in the lobby… Turns out, there are 2-3 other large events happening and other workshops as well in the building today. The receptionists are slammed and can’t help with checking in our people. I didn’t have my pop-up banners yet (remember, they were supposed to be at the offices today by 8 :30 AM), so there wasn’t an easy way to attract our attendees to check in with my team and get escorted to the rooms. Since I had booked 2 rooms (in case we had enough people to split), I re-routed the catering team to place food in the office we selected, set up my clients with the tech and food, then began my search for the pop-up banners…I made good friends with some folks in the mail room. Long story short, they didn’t make it in time. They arrived by 9:00 am, after we had collected our few workshop attendees from the reception area and had started the event. We didn’t even open them, we just kept them in the boxes to be tagged as luggage on the way back home.

*What I learned- don’t trust the mail to get things to you on time. AND check the holiday & event calendars for where you are hosting events- I say this again because it’s important.

We started late, due to the confusion of getting the attendees checked in and into the room, but we were officially started! Halfway through one of the explainer portions, before the attendees had even gotten to the hands-on work portion… the fire alarm went off. Now, if you’ve traveled, you’ll know that different countries have different sounding alarms and sirens. Us Americans all went ‘…whaaa?…’ and I opened the door to see all the others opening doors, putting on jackets and filing outside. So yeah…we had to go as well.

I speak a little French, not as well as I did in college, but enough to get the gist of things. I stuck to the attendees and tried to corral them together. The last thing I wanted to do was lose the small group of people in the huge crowd of hundreds on the streets. I let them chat amongst themselves, listening in to see if I could catch anything helpful, but my vocab is not great with tech terms. Once we were allowed back in the building, it turned out we lost one attendee. Turns out she left and told the clients it was because her company wasn’t using whatever was required for the workshop to be helpful or relevant. We finished up the workshop without any more incidents and then headed back to the hotel to drop off things and to get lunch. The rest of the trip was just wrap up work and then a day and a half to myself to be a tourist while my clients had other meetings I wasn’t managing.

Things may have gone to hell in a handbasket, and there may have been some things that could be considered “failures”, but I feel like I did pretty darn good!!

And because it’s not a story about Victoria without some sort of physical blunder or hurting herself-

I flew Icelandic Air both to Paris and back- (and I loved them! I will fly with them again! This is by no means a comment on them, this is all me). On the way home- we had to disembark on the tarmac and then take a shuttle to the terminal. To do that-I had to walk down the big stairs they rolled up to the door and onto the tarmac with my carry-ons. They said to be careful walking down the stairs, since they were mental and may be slippery. My seat was super close to the door, so I was one of the first dozen or so to exit. I made it all the way to the bottom of the stairs, put my left foot down on the tarmac, and my ankle rolled. I went down HARD. Left ankle gave out, I dropped my bag, fell over the top of it, hitting my knee on the ground and busting it open, massive scrape on my right foot where it was dragged as I tumbled. Backpack went over my head and into a puddle. Don’t forget, this is me we are talking about, so I’m wearing a dress. It’s long and flowy and is my favorite flying outfit (veerrry comfy, essentially a fashionable snuggie).

Back to my senses- I am in a jumble on the ground, trying to get up (and failing due to my left leg), the Icelandic ground crew picks me up and helps me get to the shuttle. I just keep telling them I’m fine…because oh my gosh an entire plane of people just watched this chubby American girl in a floral dress fall face first on the tarmac and is bleeding. I hadn't noticed how bad the knee scrape was until I sat down on the shuttle (not making eye contact with anyone) and composed myself. As soon as we got to the terminal, I took out my first aid kit from my carry on (thank goodness I had packed the GIANT bandages) and set to cleaning and bandaging myself up. A few Icelandic moms and aunties came over to make sure I was ok- I should have told the crew on my next flights, but I just wanted to be home and not cause a fuss. The layover, flight home and the next day was rough, but it’s been over a year and, the scars remind me of a pretty great story…

*What I learned—ASK FOR HELP. I should have seen first aid or asked for ice on the plane. I’m not embarrassed about it now- but I sure was in the moment. Think big picture when things are tough.

But wait- there’s more! While I was falling off airplanes in Iceland, my boss (Melissa) was receiving a phone call from my client, who was still in Paris, telling her how impressed they were with how I handled things during that event. Specifically, that because of my ability to stay (outwardly) calm and handle that crazy situation with (reasonable) grace, he offered me a year-long+ contract!

In summary- things did go wrong, things did fail, but I did not!