Trade Show Day 3. Wrap. Headed Home
Sep. 11th, 2024 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerToday was Day 3, the last day, of the trade show I'm working in Austin. The show is JFrog SwampUP, BTW. Yes, that's a kinda weird name with a bunch of weird capitalization. But it's been a good show. Similar to the JFrog show last year.
Today was another longer-than-it-should've been day, though. When I arrived at the booth at 8am prospects were already chatting with exhibitors. Breakfast opens at 7:30 in the same space as the exhibitors, so attendees go wandering around with food in hand to talk to people before the keynote starts at 8:30.
The day then extended until 3:30pm, technically. After that it was tear-down. Tear-down involved both good news and bad news. The bad news was all my colleagues had left by then. I'm a bit bothered by the lack of discipline that people sign up for staffing a conference that runs 'til 3:30pm then book flights home that leave at 4, meaning they desert us at 1:30 to get to the airport. But I'm only a bit bothered because I've decided to take it in stride and stop holding myself to the high standard of being there for the full count that literally nobody else in my company holds themselves to. I slack a bit but still do more work than almost anybody else at these shows.
The good news was that closing down the booth by myself was fine because it was a one-person job. The booth itself is provided (and thus torn down) by a vendor. All I needed to do was pack up our demo laptop and leftover swag into a cardboard box, tape it up, affix the preprinted shipping label, and leave it in the booth area for the shipper to collect later in the day. BTW, in case this description sounds incredibly basic, please understand that most college graduates fail at it. I excel at it... perhaps because I am not just a college graduate but an Ivy League graduate... and advanced degree holder. 🎓
Now I'm at AUS airport resting my feet after eating a bit of dinner and awaiting my flight home tonight. The flight's at 6:45pm, arriving 8:30pm Pacific Time. So far it looks on-time. Yay.
One of my California colleagues is flying home tomorrow. I'm like, "Dude, why?" I did consider 6 weeks ago when making travel plans whether to stay another night. The hotel is nice and its $400+/night rate is paid by the company, but I've got work tomorrow that needs to get done. And I'd rather sleep in my own bed with my spouse tonight than spend another night in almost any hotel. And there's a nonstop flight that gets me home not just before midnight but well before midnight, hours before midnight, and didn't require me to sneak out early from the conference. This is the way.
Update: My flight actually left 5 minutes early— a thing that virtually never happens on Southwest Airlines anymore. 😲 And we landed 15 minutes early. Ditto about virtually never happening anymore. Then my spouse came to pick me up at the airport so I could feel "at home" right away instead of waiting for, and riding in, an impersonal Lyft or Uber. All in all, I was home-home just before 9pm Pacific. It felt good to be home after 3 long days of business travel.
Today was another longer-than-it-should've been day, though. When I arrived at the booth at 8am prospects were already chatting with exhibitors. Breakfast opens at 7:30 in the same space as the exhibitors, so attendees go wandering around with food in hand to talk to people before the keynote starts at 8:30.
The day then extended until 3:30pm, technically. After that it was tear-down. Tear-down involved both good news and bad news. The bad news was all my colleagues had left by then. I'm a bit bothered by the lack of discipline that people sign up for staffing a conference that runs 'til 3:30pm then book flights home that leave at 4, meaning they desert us at 1:30 to get to the airport. But I'm only a bit bothered because I've decided to take it in stride and stop holding myself to the high standard of being there for the full count that literally nobody else in my company holds themselves to. I slack a bit but still do more work than almost anybody else at these shows.
The good news was that closing down the booth by myself was fine because it was a one-person job. The booth itself is provided (and thus torn down) by a vendor. All I needed to do was pack up our demo laptop and leftover swag into a cardboard box, tape it up, affix the preprinted shipping label, and leave it in the booth area for the shipper to collect later in the day. BTW, in case this description sounds incredibly basic, please understand that most college graduates fail at it. I excel at it... perhaps because I am not just a college graduate but an Ivy League graduate... and advanced degree holder. 🎓
Now I'm at AUS airport resting my feet after eating a bit of dinner and awaiting my flight home tonight. The flight's at 6:45pm, arriving 8:30pm Pacific Time. So far it looks on-time. Yay.
One of my California colleagues is flying home tomorrow. I'm like, "Dude, why?" I did consider 6 weeks ago when making travel plans whether to stay another night. The hotel is nice and its $400+/night rate is paid by the company, but I've got work tomorrow that needs to get done. And I'd rather sleep in my own bed with my spouse tonight than spend another night in almost any hotel. And there's a nonstop flight that gets me home not just before midnight but well before midnight, hours before midnight, and didn't require me to sneak out early from the conference. This is the way.
Update: My flight actually left 5 minutes early— a thing that virtually never happens on Southwest Airlines anymore. 😲 And we landed 15 minutes early. Ditto about virtually never happening anymore. Then my spouse came to pick me up at the airport so I could feel "at home" right away instead of waiting for, and riding in, an impersonal Lyft or Uber. All in all, I was home-home just before 9pm Pacific. It felt good to be home after 3 long days of business travel.
