I've been thinking (read: worrying, panicking, and wildly flapping my hands) about this week for about three months straight. And now it's finally within reach; tangible; at bay - the week of Away Day. In exactly five days, I will be in St. Charles, IL with 500 of my fellow ThoughtWorkers. Sipping on a gin and topic. Eyes scanning the crowd for anything on fire. Mind teetering between the edges of experiencing sheer pride and wonderment at what's going around me...and of collapsing into a nervous breakdown.
It's funny - when I first began this planning gig and was telling folks around the office of what I'd be doing, they'd get all wide-eyed and whisper "Oh my God, you poor thing, you have no idea what you're in for" and douse me in sympathetic looks, as if I'd just announced I was going to raft across the Pacific or take up the black a la Jon Snow or something equally insane. And at the time I would secretly roll my eyes and think, "How hard could it be? It's just an event." Everything I had to do was well mapped out in my head - it was just a long list of tasks that would keep me busy for three months - no big deal, right?
Wrong. Dreadfully wrong. I quickly learned that planning an event like this is not black-and-white. It is grey with uncertainty, red with impatience, orange with indecision, green with budget expectations, yellow with soft skills, blue with disappointment, and purple with surprises from leadership. 500 people is a lot of people to begin with. 500 smart and opinionated people from all over the country - and a hefty handful from across the world - start to feel like thousands, each with their own requests and hopes and plans for the weekend. Never in the beginning did I think about having to accommodate those who were vegan. Or breastfeeding. Or the credit-cardless, or the hearing-impaired, or those who begged for extensions on deadlines or submissions. Never did I plan on sending upwards of a hundred e-mails a day. Of negotiating cab fares for volunteers, or offering prizes for good registrants whilst glaring at procrastinators and non-responders alike. Never did I plan on meeting so many of my colleagues through virtual conversations - always ending with "I'm excited to meet you in person come June 22nd!". And never did I really, in the course of planning this, plan on the event sneaking up on me so quickly.
Now that the big weekend is looming on the horizon, I think I'm going through all the emotional cycles of a pregnant woman - anxiety, excitement, fear, impatience, dread, happiness, pride, and a craving for pickles. All the big pieces have fallen in place and it's just the small things to worry about now, the last minute bits of the puzzle that quickly assemble themselves under the last few ticks of the timer that ends the afternoon of June 22nd.
I know the job is far from over - in fact, this week will likely draw itself to feel as long as the past three months have combined - but I've already learned one thing about myself on this project, and it's that I relish the feeling of doing rewarding work. At every step of this process, my work, no matter how small or seemingly significant, can be justified as helping this event come together, inch by inch. The end goal is at the end of the tunnel, and instead of walking in circles or taking steps in the dark, most everything I have been doing has been a linear progression towards that goal. That tangible feeing of pure, clear accomplishment has been new and incredible for me - and whenever I am thanked for my work, or encouraged to keep on doing what I am doing from my peers, it truly lifts my spirits and makes me grateful to have had this chance to do something that my coworkers can appreciate from afar.
I'll stop the sappiness here - I don't want to jinx how good and how rewarding this role has been or the impending outcome of the weekend, wherein success is *not* guaranteed. One thing for sure is that in exactly a week from today, when the whole thing is over, I'll be exhausted from the event and hopefully asleep by now with yet another project's worth of learnings - both the good and the bad - tucked away in my mental toolbox. I can't wait I can't wait ooooh I am so nervous.
It's funny - when I first began this planning gig and was telling folks around the office of what I'd be doing, they'd get all wide-eyed and whisper "Oh my God, you poor thing, you have no idea what you're in for" and douse me in sympathetic looks, as if I'd just announced I was going to raft across the Pacific or take up the black a la Jon Snow or something equally insane. And at the time I would secretly roll my eyes and think, "How hard could it be? It's just an event." Everything I had to do was well mapped out in my head - it was just a long list of tasks that would keep me busy for three months - no big deal, right?
Wrong. Dreadfully wrong. I quickly learned that planning an event like this is not black-and-white. It is grey with uncertainty, red with impatience, orange with indecision, green with budget expectations, yellow with soft skills, blue with disappointment, and purple with surprises from leadership. 500 people is a lot of people to begin with. 500 smart and opinionated people from all over the country - and a hefty handful from across the world - start to feel like thousands, each with their own requests and hopes and plans for the weekend. Never in the beginning did I think about having to accommodate those who were vegan. Or breastfeeding. Or the credit-cardless, or the hearing-impaired, or those who begged for extensions on deadlines or submissions. Never did I plan on sending upwards of a hundred e-mails a day. Of negotiating cab fares for volunteers, or offering prizes for good registrants whilst glaring at procrastinators and non-responders alike. Never did I plan on meeting so many of my colleagues through virtual conversations - always ending with "I'm excited to meet you in person come June 22nd!". And never did I really, in the course of planning this, plan on the event sneaking up on me so quickly.
Now that the big weekend is looming on the horizon, I think I'm going through all the emotional cycles of a pregnant woman - anxiety, excitement, fear, impatience, dread, happiness, pride, and a craving for pickles. All the big pieces have fallen in place and it's just the small things to worry about now, the last minute bits of the puzzle that quickly assemble themselves under the last few ticks of the timer that ends the afternoon of June 22nd.
I know the job is far from over - in fact, this week will likely draw itself to feel as long as the past three months have combined - but I've already learned one thing about myself on this project, and it's that I relish the feeling of doing rewarding work. At every step of this process, my work, no matter how small or seemingly significant, can be justified as helping this event come together, inch by inch. The end goal is at the end of the tunnel, and instead of walking in circles or taking steps in the dark, most everything I have been doing has been a linear progression towards that goal. That tangible feeing of pure, clear accomplishment has been new and incredible for me - and whenever I am thanked for my work, or encouraged to keep on doing what I am doing from my peers, it truly lifts my spirits and makes me grateful to have had this chance to do something that my coworkers can appreciate from afar.
I'll stop the sappiness here - I don't want to jinx how good and how rewarding this role has been or the impending outcome of the weekend, wherein success is *not* guaranteed. One thing for sure is that in exactly a week from today, when the whole thing is over, I'll be exhausted from the event and hopefully asleep by now with yet another project's worth of learnings - both the good and the bad - tucked away in my mental toolbox. I can't wait I can't wait ooooh I am so nervous.
how did it go?
ReplyDeletewell! thank you for asking. i have a terrible habit of writing pre and not post event posts. but everything went about as well as it could have - i only wish i had had more time to enjoy the event/sleep ;-) but it was an exciting and rewarding experience.
ReplyDelete