Of Backz

If you have been checking out this page often enough and observed that there isn't any update, thanks for coming back again and again, i'm really happy that someone bothers reading what i write, what i have in my mind..

So, work has been the order of the day, order of the week, order of the month.. into my 3rd month into my current job, the traditional honeymoon period is well and truly over.. an event that took last then 4 weeks to plan and execute was concluded today, and it was not without hiccups...

as with events, i always enter the fray with a negative approach, planning for contingencies and expecting worse.. Murphy's Law always applies, more so when you are 3 months into your job and things that could have been covered by initiative by others were sorely lacking..

at the end of it all, it seems like medicoracy was acceptable.. and thus, it was the case.. so, what went wrong?

Equipment and IT - Testing the equipment the day before is no guarantee that it won't play a trick on you 30mins before the event.. as always though, the problem is solved without actually knowing why.. when the function-F7 decides to work, its does, that's nothing one can do to ensure otherwise

Ushering - where initiative should have been a norm, i was surprised by initiative being an exception in this case.. point to note: if someone ask you to usher people to seat in a theatre, they don't mean random placement, ushering is about politely convincing people that the front seats are the best, central seats provide the best view, there's no people with that person sitting there, please fill up that space instead of leaving gap every 2 person.. oh yes and finally, ushering means telling people that seats with stickers bearing words such as "WINNER", "CEO", "MD(CS)", "Dir(AM)" and RESERVED are actually, truly and really: Reserved. Please do not seat if you are not any of the aboved..

Slides - When you are an external speaker invited to speak at an event so that you can make more business, DO NOT approach the OIC of the event 10mins before the start of the event with you thumbdrive requesting for a new version of the slides to be loaded.. nope, bringing the Director of your company with you to put pressure on this OIC which is only an executive has no impact on him, especially not when he is having technical problems with this laptop(read above)

Speaker - in this case, OIC's boss' boss which is effectively his boss, please pay attention to visual cues to slow down.. i'm sorry for waving and giving you signals that seem confusing.. but then, there isn't much i can do to get your attention when you go that fast and decide to stop looking at my direction

Food - don't ever believe when the person in-charge of the venue tells you that the caterers are reliable.. CATERERS CANNOT KEEP TO TIME, CATERERS CANNOT KEEP TO TIME, CATERERS CANNOT KEEP TO TIME. but then again, no one expected the event to end 15mins earlier when we started 15mins late.. (refer to point on speaker)

So that's it, a first event that i was fully in charge of.. i worked so late this week that the taxi charges went over $50 for this week alone..

Oh yes, may i add that in the 4 years that i have worked, this is the first place where after an event of such scale (CEO-level invite, 200guests(only 120+ turned up)).. you don't get to rest.. you head back to office with tons of emails to read, tons to emails that you have read the past 2 weeks but had been to busy to follow up, MP to clear for event, contracts to sign, floorplans to approve, emails to reply, proposals to review, enquiries to attend to, cheques to chase, deposits to return, posters to put up, sites to visit, table to pack, phonecalls to answer..

yes, i'm just a 3-month old baby in this company.. I will survive