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So I've just come back from spending the last four days helping with the convention that we run for people in our industry each year. It was hard work, but a lot of fun and surprisingly minimal suckiness from everyone (with a few exceptions, but nothing huge)
- I managed to make my now-former manager very proud with the fact that our graduation ceremony went off without a hitch (and thus secured my ticket for next year
).
- One of my duties was playing room host for a bunch of sessions that were running on one of the days (we had four rooms dedicated to concurrent sessions - all I had to do was act as door guard, count the numbers and drop off the presenter gifts). The room I was in had around 3 sessions out of 5 that were actually very useful to me and have given me some ideas for improving the program I spend a lot of time helping out on.
- During a break, I took a walk through the exhibitor hall (and scored a boatload of freebies) and spotted a stall run by a hotline for people in that industry who may need some physical or mental support and can be referred onto relevant services. I asked if they also support students (and explained what my role is) and they confirmed they did. This other lady who was talking to one of the gentlemen there also caught onto the conversation and we got chatting. End result - she invited me to help collaborate on developing a new tool for new students at the university she works at.
We also had some very funny moments that occurred throughout, including:
- During the opening session each day, we usually had a couple of keynote speakers followed by a politician (who in theory was MEANT to be related to the industry in question eg Minister for <Field> or they worked in the field before politics).
Things got quite awkward on the second day with the politician we had lined up for two reasons: 1) Due to certain events (that are for Fratching), the politician in question was no longer the Minister for <Field> and 2) After the photo-ops and chatting with the CEO were done, the politician in question was escorted into the theatre right when there happened to be a giant picture of an infected penis on the two video screens in the room
- On the third day, we had a different politician and this happened to be one that a few of us were excited about. I got assigned to "hand out the freebie" duty that morning and was handing out freebies when the politician in question walked over to our entrance. My coworker had no clue who he was. I, on the other hand, literally squealed like a schoolgirl and was gushing the entire time when he spoke to me!
(This was the rare case where I went in to actually watch the opening session as well - his speech was really powerful)
- We had a gala dinner on the second night, which actually went quite well. This was the type of affair where they had a three-course meal with alternating dishes at each table (eg I got Dish A, while the folks on either side of me got Dish B). In this case, the alternate dish to mine happened to have a potato bake-like thing pressed into the shape of a cube. The "plate" was also more like a bowl in this case and somewhat bathtub-shaped. So my coworker sitting next to me goes "This is the first time in my life I've had a square potato in a bathtub." The two colleagues sitting on either side of us absolutely lost it and have not let her live it down since.
- Later on, while we were all on the dancefloor, this woman kept coming up to us and randomly taking selfies with people (including myself and another colleague). I was thinking "hey, she kinda looks familiar," but couldn't place the name. I found out later that she actually happened to be one of the members of our board of directors
(I didn't insult her or anything, but still!)
- I managed to make my now-former manager very proud with the fact that our graduation ceremony went off without a hitch (and thus secured my ticket for next year
). - One of my duties was playing room host for a bunch of sessions that were running on one of the days (we had four rooms dedicated to concurrent sessions - all I had to do was act as door guard, count the numbers and drop off the presenter gifts). The room I was in had around 3 sessions out of 5 that were actually very useful to me and have given me some ideas for improving the program I spend a lot of time helping out on.
- During a break, I took a walk through the exhibitor hall (and scored a boatload of freebies) and spotted a stall run by a hotline for people in that industry who may need some physical or mental support and can be referred onto relevant services. I asked if they also support students (and explained what my role is) and they confirmed they did. This other lady who was talking to one of the gentlemen there also caught onto the conversation and we got chatting. End result - she invited me to help collaborate on developing a new tool for new students at the university she works at.
We also had some very funny moments that occurred throughout, including:
- During the opening session each day, we usually had a couple of keynote speakers followed by a politician (who in theory was MEANT to be related to the industry in question eg Minister for <Field> or they worked in the field before politics).
Things got quite awkward on the second day with the politician we had lined up for two reasons: 1) Due to certain events (that are for Fratching), the politician in question was no longer the Minister for <Field> and 2) After the photo-ops and chatting with the CEO were done, the politician in question was escorted into the theatre right when there happened to be a giant picture of an infected penis on the two video screens in the room
- On the third day, we had a different politician and this happened to be one that a few of us were excited about. I got assigned to "hand out the freebie" duty that morning and was handing out freebies when the politician in question walked over to our entrance. My coworker had no clue who he was. I, on the other hand, literally squealed like a schoolgirl and was gushing the entire time when he spoke to me!
(This was the rare case where I went in to actually watch the opening session as well - his speech was really powerful)- We had a gala dinner on the second night, which actually went quite well. This was the type of affair where they had a three-course meal with alternating dishes at each table (eg I got Dish A, while the folks on either side of me got Dish B). In this case, the alternate dish to mine happened to have a potato bake-like thing pressed into the shape of a cube. The "plate" was also more like a bowl in this case and somewhat bathtub-shaped. So my coworker sitting next to me goes "This is the first time in my life I've had a square potato in a bathtub." The two colleagues sitting on either side of us absolutely lost it and have not let her live it down since.
- Later on, while we were all on the dancefloor, this woman kept coming up to us and randomly taking selfies with people (including myself and another colleague). I was thinking "hey, she kinda looks familiar," but couldn't place the name. I found out later that she actually happened to be one of the members of our board of directors
(I didn't insult her or anything, but still!)