Photo credit: Ben White
In the Events division at my job, the process of getting a travel program going is divided into lots of pie pieces. We have the folks who source the hotels and write the programs, the folks who program the program websites, the folks who book the air, the folks who write and design the communications, the folks who manage the participants, the folks who go on site and run the program. Then there’s what I do; from the time a program sells until the participants arrive at their destination, I oversee all the other pieces of pie, getting all the details wrapped up tight so the program runs successfully.
Over the years I’ve been corralled a few times into doing work in other departments; I’ve been successful but I don’t like it much. A couple of months ago we got the opportunity to bid for a big piece of business with a client that I’ve worked with for 15 years – in fact I’ve done 46 trips for their various regions. As you can imagine, this opportunity has taken on a life of its own – specs from the client, questions back to them, a preliminary presentation made. The number of meetings has been alarming, especially since I really don’t have that much input. Others involved are excited to be doing the work, love the corporate lingo and are happy to be jumping through all the necessary hoops. I completely understand this work has to be done but it doesn’t ring my bell. So I smile, answer any questions asked of me and multi-task. It really makes me appreciate zoom meetings.
The notification that we made the initial cut and have a presentation date slated came down on Tuesday. We had a meeting on Wednesday – I knew this would be the meeting in which decisions were made about who would be part of the presentation. I’ve been dreading this prospect for weeks; while I certainly wouldn’t be tasked with heading up the presentation, I worried that with my overwhelming experience on the account, they would think I would be handy to have in the room. Not my cup of tea and the idea of flying to the east coast for two days for this presentation doesn’t excite me at all.
They didn’t ask me. I can’t tell anybody at work how relieved I am not to be part of the presentation team. But I can tell you all – I am very happy to stay home. I’m not even going to grouse about the fact that there are two “practice” meetings that I have been asked to attend, even though I’m not practicing. Phew!
What topic could you give a 30-minute presentation on without any preparation?