As we close out the year, 2015 is quite the personal milestone for The Event Mechanic!, given that it represents 10 years in business this month. Reflecting on a total of 24 years in the events business has encouraged me to think about the circumstances that prompted my choice to pursue my own path in the industry.
I was running Macworld at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and was in an elevator on my way to the staff office. Also in the elevator was a guy dressed in both a three piece suit and flip flops. This was, after all, San Francisco.
As we stood next to each other, he glanced over and said, “I like what you said about the show!” Intrigued by the comment, I asked him what he meant. His response was to retrieve the event’s show guide from his bag, pointing to the opening letter on page 3, which was the typical Show Director’s form letter that you updated in 10 minutes for every show, year after year, as one of your many duties.
He had read the letter and memorized what I wrote. In that moment in the elevator, he had remembered who had written it, eyeballed my badge, and made the connection between paper and human being. He then gave me kudos for something which, though I hadn’t spent hours writing, had nevertheless meant something significant to him.
I thanked him and we both went our separate ways when the elevator doors opened. It did get me thinking that without that series of actions, he would not have made the connection between the letter and me. And, if he had missed any one of those steps, I would have never known how he felt about my part in delivering the show.
That was a wake up call for me. I had become somewhat jaded in doing my trade show “stuff” working on each show without fully enjoying the ‘magic’ that Macworld and many other events I had produced. To some extent, I’d become removed from the activities that must be done to run a show since those activities were performed by people who reported to other people who, in turn, reported to me. I had lost touch with the essence of why we do these shows – because it matters to someone- sometimes someone far removed from each of us. And even if I wasn’t jazzed at the moment I got the comment in the elevator, I certainly was afterwards when I reflected upon its real meaning. It served to reconnect me to why I’m in this business – that my part in every show does matter to many people- and always will. Needless to say, that has been a guiding light to me to this day as I write these words.
So as we close out the year, may I wish you all Happy Holidays. And may I also offer you an exhortation to get excited again about being in the business despite the many trials and tribulations making them successful and profitable!
Happy New Year and Great Tidings for a Great and Meaningful 2016!