retro post: Bloomington Week 1

For a couple of months now, my team has been planning a workshop for the 23 Points of Contact (POCs) across the nation. Each VA region designates one person to be a POC for my project and it was time to pull them together for a face-to-face meeting.

There was a lot of planning that went into this. A three day conference means producing a lot of content, and my philosophy is that if you are bringing people together, your presentations need to be things that are better done in person. If you can do a Web Meeting or conference call, why are paying for hotels and airfare?

The conference was a success. Our evaluations were great and I think people learned a lot. Thank goodness I wasn't the one in charge of logistics though. That was a mess. You won't believe what a hotel conference costs. And the customer service was awful, just awful. We'll be reporting the hotel to their corporate chain.

At the end of the week we jumped on a plane and headed back to Madison. Again, the plane sat on the tarmac for two hours "due to weather". This time, a teenager sat right behind me. He and his mom were playing some game which required them to smack their tray table on a regular basis. I finally stood up, turned around and advised her that every time they smacked the table, my seat rocked. Blank stare. EVERY TIME, I emphasized. Boy, was she put out. Gee, I'm sorry that you aren't able to keep a teenager, or yourself, under control while the rest of us grown-ups quietly respect our fellow passengers who are also being PUT OUT by the delay. Turns out she was one of those folks who believe the world owes her. She nearly knocked someone's head off when she jerked her bag out of the overhead bin when we landed. Oh, and this was the ride where I sat next to a man who was paralyzed from the waist down. I was the verrrrry last person off the plane (besides him), and that was after I climbed over the top of him. What luck, huh?

It was a very good thing we did eventually make it to Madison though. The meeting began as a disaster and I had to stand up and take charge to salvage it. You'll see from next week's post that things didn't get any better on that front either.

Thankfully, my flight back to DC was right on time, but my two co-workers were connecting through Chicago (to Boston and to Charlotte) and were very much delayed. Word was that there were high winds in Chicago and a main runway was shut down. Renay later told me she asked in Chicago about the weather and the agent told her they'd had no problems and no delays. Hmmmmmm. Airline coverup?!