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Traveling is an amazing experience. You stand in a queue to get checked in followed by yet another standfest at security this is subsequently followed by extended periods of sitting. Miraculously after all of this activity you arrive at your destination on the other side of the world. Voila!
 It sounds so simple to say this but as we all know traveling for business isn’t as glamorous as many of our friends and associates think.
For example, I recently had a discussion with a good friend and they commented that they were jealous that I was heading to NYC and that it must be amazing doing all that traveling and seeing sites around the world.
Yeah right! I patiently tried to explain that it wasn’t really a holiday and that an airport, hotel and bar (with any luck) plus 26 hours of traveling wasn’t as much fun as he first thought. I really don’t think I managed to get through to him as his next question was what I thought of the Statue of Liberty.
So for all of you who have traveled from near or far I sympathize and empathize with the frustrating conversations that you’re likely to have when you arrive back home.
I think that the challenge we professional conference attenders face is to smile sweetly, nod appreciatively at the questions and get a frontal lobotomy as we remember being cooped up next to a 300 lb gorilla on one side and a diaper filled baby on the other for 15+ hours in a metal tube with wings in seat 23J.
This, believe it or not brings me to an important point. Anyone, that travels for business actually really wants and needs to be at their destination. This means that everyone at TRAFFIC that had survived the journey actually wanted to get down to some important deal making.
This is really the whole point of the event. During the my time at TRAFFIC I drank about 50 cups of coffee to fend off jetlag (I'm still waiting for the syringe version of coffee), had over 16 scheduled meetings, countless other impromptu ones and now I’ve got the next few months mapped out for me. Or as my business partner who also attended would say, the next few weeks because like all of the features in Windows 7 sleep has become an optional extra.
Did I attend a session? No. Did I hear that they were good? Yes, I heard that quite a few were good but basically at about $300 per hour whether I was asleep or not my primary goal was tied up in the many meetings.
I noticed that TRAFFIC has also responded to this by starting later each morning (thank goodness after the excellent party put on by Skenzo the previous night). They also eliminated many of the meals which in some ways was a good idea because it mean that people went out together and a lot of food wasn’t wasted. Although a small little breakfast bar could have been good rather than just a brunch…..but this wasn’t a really big issue.
Rick, Howard and their various family members did a great job organizing the conference and it was great catching up with them. In some ways, I feel like the wives in particular are the real heart of TRAFFIC so it will be interesting to see what happens since the event has been licensed to Rick Latona. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that he'll do a great job.
A number of people at the conference spoke to me personally about whizzbangsblog and how much they have enjoyed reading it. I want to thank you all in writing for your fantastic support and comments. As a writer I sometimes wonder who actually reads the articles and it’s always wonderful to receive such positive feedback.
Most importantly, I’d like to thank all of those people that took the time to brave the wilds of whatever airport that you’ve journeyed from to get physically together. I hope that you found TRAFFIC as worthwhile as I did.
Gotta go, I think that my big tube for LA has been called….I just hope that any parents with babies in row 23 didn’t check on the spare diapers. Cheers!
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It was great chatting/meeting you at the show in NYC. Keep up the great work with your blog!
- Richard