feeling appreciated...

Wednesday evening was the client appreciation party...strangely it was in one of the large halls within the convention centre so suffered from the sort of identity crisis you see when the school hall is transformed for a disco with crepe paper and home-made posters, the band was OK but to start with (with only the most enthusiastic people "groovin their thang", it felt a bit "dad-dancing at a wedding"). Some very interesting freebies/souvenirs that money couldn't buy. We didn't stay that long (only an hour longer than the party was supposed to last) and were definitely not up for the private, after-party, Bb staff event! I think we were seriously feeling the pressure of the 7.30 presentation. OK, so not quite the wild night that seemed to unravel when Liz, Helen R, Angie and Alison P. hit Nice but it was pretty good...and certainly got better as the alcohol flowed. Highlights for me were:

• Mary being slightly freaked out when she discovered that Ira Strauss from Embry-Riddle had heard of her
• getting the chance to share the Simon Fitzpatrick story again with Steve Gilfus and also sharing with him Liz's excellent gilford (Gilfus word) "jetferenced"
• meeting Criag Charnoff properly - we haven't really "connected" since he sent me an email after San Diego to apologise for offending me, which was odd cos he hadn't, I'd just been messing with Aaron's head.
• Country getting very excited about his very own pack of SHU Bb Support Centre post-it notes.
• catching up with Mary Goode (Bb Head of HR) who is just a really, really nice person who likes my hair (hmmmm)
• getting some really nice feedback on the exec workshop session Paul and I did - loads of people came up to us to say nice things
• giving KJ even more of a hard time about the 7.30 start (she just laughed...which, of course, she does a lot) - it is always pretty impressive, I think, just how enthusiastic and unphased she is by the whole thing. Having spent 10 months planning the event and trying to get all the programme planning, marketing, logisitics etc etc sorted and designing a really complicated schedule for 2,500 attendees, she still seems to really enjoy the event itself
• talking to Paul Grist about....you know, I can't remember what it was we were talking about... but I am sure it was very serious, high level stuff (it generally is with Paul) I suppose there is a pretty good chance that it was about assignment handler....
• gathering souvenirs...esp when we realised that, whilst trying to look inconspicuous, Mary's bag was actually glowing!!
• as if the big picture of me thing hasn't gone on long enough I discover that there is a very big picture of me by the elevator in the Bb HQ that most of the Bb staff see everyday (that explains a lot of the funny looks I've been getting)...Craig Charnoff messing with my mind on many levels by telling me this, then saying "you know you're much shorter in real life aren't you, in DC your head is about three feet high, I thought you must play in the NBA!"

What's this - a party highlights thing without a mention of the MC himself, MC, that can't be right....well no of course not. If his keynote style doesn't give you a bit of a clue just think what happens when he is MCing the disco and dancing competition and trying to inject some energy and enthusiasm into the party. Couple of things that are always funny include his "calling to the dancefloor" strategy - highlights being:

• "all Bb employees to the dancefloor, make some noise...or you're fired!"
• "all WebCT Vista clients to the dancefloor, c'mon, work out those frustrations!"
• "if you have an open support ticket, c'mon raise your hands and make some noise!"
• all ex-Bb employees who are now CEOs of other companies to the dancefloor!"
• "if your name is Volker to the dancefloor!"

not to mention the special moment when he does that chanting thing - "raise yours hands in the air, let me hear you shout 'o-oh', 'o-oh', let me hear you shout 'Black-board', 'Black-board', wave your glowsticks in the air and shout 'o-oh', 'o-oh', 'Black-board', 'Black-board', 'Black-board', 'Black-board'...." and yes, they did all do it...does anyone think they could make something like that work at ALT? er...no...probably not. btw - no the souvenirs in Mary's bag were not glowsticks something way more special than that ;-)