This story starts about six months ago. Well, not really, other than the fact that Payroll/HR/Whoever miscalculated the number of vacation hours I had available. About a week before I was to leave for Houston, this was discovered. Which means that, instead of travel days to bookend my time in Houston, I flew down Friday (2/1) after work. I had a return flight late on Tuesday (2/5) whereby I would zip out right after the last conference session and miss the closing night reception.
(It all serves as background for later in my story. Mostly to tell you that it didn’t go as I had originally planned.)
I made it down without incident. I flew into IAH (Intercontinental) and, on the taxi ride in, noticed how office buildings, restaurants, shopping centers, 24-hour fireworks stores, etc followed car dealerships. One on top of the other – there wasn’t maybe 30 feet between each establishment. And this went on for miles. I later learned this was because there are no zoning regulations in Houston.
I stayed at Club Quarters Houston, which I found on hotels.com. It was in a great location and a great deal for the money. It offered free bottled water (from a chilled machine…you fill your own bottle) on each floor – a pretty cool offering. They also offered room service and would deliver from restaurants near the hotel. It was a nice facility and I would stay again in a heartbeat.
The first day I took a tour to the Johnson Space Center, about 40 minutes out of the city. I don’t know what I expected, but I may not have been in the right mood to truly appreciate what was there. We were shuttled…shuffled…into an IMAX theater and shown “To Be an Astronaut” (I think that’s what it was called). It was a film about what it takes to become an astronaut, from the selection to the training to landing safely back on Earth. It was a bit dated (late 80s, early 90s) and as dramatic as a film about space exploration should be. Interesting, nonetheless. After that, we had about another 3.5 hours, so we all rushed over to line up for the tram tour. We waited about a half our, and I was one of the last six people or so to make the 12 o’clock tour. It lasts 90 minutes, so I would have made the next one (at 12:30), but it would not have allowed time to explore the rest of the visitors’ center upon re-entry.
The one thing the tour guides kept repeating was “Please use the restrooms before starting the tram tour. It is 90 minutes long and there are NO restrooms on the tour.” So, of course, people were leaving the line to use the restrooms before boarding the tram. But was anyone not surprised when… on the first stop at Mission Control, we were told to wait on the first floor while the group ahead of us exited. What was right around the corner, restrooms. And what did people do, use them. They used them just because they were there. Not 10 milliseconds after they entered the tour guide told us to start heading upstairs. So, husbands and parents went after their children. Annoying.
In any event, we saw Mission Control, the training facility, and the Saturn space rocket – those were the highlights. They tell you “That there is a RBT – really big thing.” They said something like Rocket Biotastical Thingamagig…in a manner expecting us to remember what it is and what it does. I won’t even try to make something up. So the tour’s about as interesting as their thinking you know what they’re talking about.
Back at the main visitor’s center they had different films about space exploration and a presentation stage with a mock-up of what it looks like inside the space shuttle. Velcro on silverware…liquids in squeezable pouches, also with Velcro. Pencils wrapped in Velcro. Velcro covered in Velcro. Too bad I caught the last five minutes of it, since it wasn’t really advertised. After eating lunch and the tram tour, you knew you didn’t have enough time to see everything, but some time to see everything. You didn’t know where to start, so I wasn’t able to take my time. I think it contributed to my unremarkable visit. That, and the fact that our tour bus drivers didn’t know when we were leaving or where our on-site contact was. And no one was told when the buses were leaving…so we also weren’t surprised when we left people behind.
I had one of my first “wait…what happened?” moments when I went to a dinner hosted by the St. Louis CVB at a restaurant around the corner from my hotel – Sambuca Restaurant. I was invited by a GW alum that works in the DC sales office. Two things: 1) it’s an amazing restaurant with an equally amazing singer – Yvonne Washington. AMAZING! 2) As I sat down at the end of the table (I was a little late) I was trying to make conversation with those around me. I asked the lady across the table “So, what do you do at the CVB?” “Oh, I’m the President.” “Oh. I bet that’s a lot of fun.” I said something like that, but not more foot-in-mouth. Come to find out later she’s one of three past MPI president’s I would meet happenstance in Houston. She’s super nice and it would be a blast to work with and for her everyday. It just goes to show me that you never know when or where you’re going to run into someone.
I spent the rest of my time attending workshops on strategic meetings management program(s) (SMMP). With an SMMP, you determine what meetings and events your organization is holding and look for ways you can save money.
For example, you may notice that a lot of your departments are holding meetings with the same vendors, but you are not negotiating to receive a discount because you’re giving so much business to that vendor. Or, you may notice that the departments are using a third-party to negotiate hotel contracts. On the rooms that the third-party negotiates on our behalf, the third-party receives a commission. If I were able to negotiate that contract, I could save money by not having to pay that commission. That’s what I’m doing every day at work! It was great – and a past MPI president led the sessions.
(I met the third past president at a supplier reception prior to the St. Louis dinner.)
True to my travel track record, I left early for the airport, skipping a networking cocktail hour. Only to learn that I could have stayed – since my 8pm flight was delayed until 11pm. This was during one of the many storms that swept through the Midwest and Ohio River Valley. I was glad I didn’t get stuck in Chicago – which would have happened (and did happen the next day to many of the conference attendees). So, I was happy I was able to change my flight – even though I didn’t get home until 3am. And made it to work on Monday by 9am.
The most amazing part of the whole trip home was flying above the clouds, at night, with the stars twinkling above, and the clouds being illuminated by the lighting below. It was spectacular. I looked around the plane and everyone was asleep. I was soaking it all in – too beautiful for words. Beautiful! Successful trip!
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* Gladys Knight’s signature song was originally titled “Midnight Train to Houston.” “Midnight Train to Georgia” was originally recorded by Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston’s mom.
