GenCon Finished
Sunday was even more a blur than the rest of the con. Last minute meetings with people, many colleagues coming by to say goodbye, give us congratulations, wish us a safe trip and so on. Even though I felt like I'd seen many people at the show, I was reminded of how many others I'd not seen at all or only seen briefly in passing.
Our guys were super efficient getting the booth broken down. Unfortunately, we'd sent our shipping case and pallet material to be stored by the decorator (instead of trying to find space inside the booth as we usually do) and had to wait nearly an hour after everything was broken down and ready to go before we had the cases to put things in. I also did two very long stints waiting in the line at the UPS shipper (first for packages we were sending back to Seattle, then to ship some boxes for an exhibitor friend...because I'm a nice person, dammit, and don't you forget it.) Yow, that was torture.
We took the team to dinner at Palomino, where we've had many good dinners in the past. Things started well, right up until I decided I wanted to order some appetizers. I had a list of several appetizers I intended to order for the table, but hadn't even finished asking for the first item when the waiter decided to let me know his opinion of my choice (which was not good). He then went over virtually the entire rest of the appetizer menu to give his opinion and recommendation (or disapproval). Man, that really set my teeth on edge: do NOT tell me what I want, I can decide that for myself. Let me know you're familiar with the menu, fine. Offer your opinion IF I ASK, fine. Interrupt me while I'm ordering (and I had a whole list of things, including many of the items that were approved by him, had he heard me out), definitely NOT fine. I found that my enthusiasm for the meal evaporated right then and there, on the spot. I looked over the menu multiple times and while our server left us waiting for 30 minutes between taking appetizer orders and the order for our main course I found that nothing appealed. Disappointment made me totally lose my appetite. I ordered some chicken dish, found it dry and let them take the plate away with half the food uneaten. Bummer.
Thankfully the company made up for it. I love our staff and don't get to spend nearly enough time just visiting with them. One of the drawbacks of the "virtual office" set up. It did make me feel pretty excited about the upcoming Green Ronin summit in October, when we'll get everyone together outside of the convention atmosphere.
Now I must check out and make sure there's not hand sanitizer or toothpaste in my carry-on luggage. Tonight, it's back to Seattle.
Our guys were super efficient getting the booth broken down. Unfortunately, we'd sent our shipping case and pallet material to be stored by the decorator (instead of trying to find space inside the booth as we usually do) and had to wait nearly an hour after everything was broken down and ready to go before we had the cases to put things in. I also did two very long stints waiting in the line at the UPS shipper (first for packages we were sending back to Seattle, then to ship some boxes for an exhibitor friend...because I'm a nice person, dammit, and don't you forget it.) Yow, that was torture.
We took the team to dinner at Palomino, where we've had many good dinners in the past. Things started well, right up until I decided I wanted to order some appetizers. I had a list of several appetizers I intended to order for the table, but hadn't even finished asking for the first item when the waiter decided to let me know his opinion of my choice (which was not good). He then went over virtually the entire rest of the appetizer menu to give his opinion and recommendation (or disapproval). Man, that really set my teeth on edge: do NOT tell me what I want, I can decide that for myself. Let me know you're familiar with the menu, fine. Offer your opinion IF I ASK, fine. Interrupt me while I'm ordering (and I had a whole list of things, including many of the items that were approved by him, had he heard me out), definitely NOT fine. I found that my enthusiasm for the meal evaporated right then and there, on the spot. I looked over the menu multiple times and while our server left us waiting for 30 minutes between taking appetizer orders and the order for our main course I found that nothing appealed. Disappointment made me totally lose my appetite. I ordered some chicken dish, found it dry and let them take the plate away with half the food uneaten. Bummer.
Thankfully the company made up for it. I love our staff and don't get to spend nearly enough time just visiting with them. One of the drawbacks of the "virtual office" set up. It did make me feel pretty excited about the upcoming Green Ronin summit in October, when we'll get everyone together outside of the convention atmosphere.
Now I must check out and make sure there's not hand sanitizer or toothpaste in my carry-on luggage. Tonight, it's back to Seattle.
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