“Hey newbie, plan a party for 200 travel agents. OH, and your SVP of Sales will be there, along with all the really important people you have to impress.”

It happened. My massive event that we’ve been planning for months. It finally happened. We found the location, ordered everything we needed, booked a florist, booked a photograher, had the team fly in and we took on NOLA.

I spent the past weekend putting together goody bags as you saw, and made sure to drop everything at the Hotel by 9am so everyone would get their snacks as soon as they checked in. (its all about the details) I had a 10:30am airport pickup, showed a group to the Bourbon House for lunch(which unfortunately that day was sub-par), went back to the airport to pick up my director and Senior BDM (business development manager) and head back to the hotel to start working.

Well… we couldn’t really get into the ballroom space till later that night since there was another event happening. So we just ironed all the table cloths and then it was time to get the team to Bourbon Street.

We didn’t get too crazy, I decided to take them on the grand tour – down Canal, we stopped for yards at a hole in the wall place, then in front of Harrah’s, along the river front, up the steps across from Jackson Square (the wow factor) and down the ramp to Cafe Du Monde. It was the top requested stop from the gang.

Cackalacky is always one for a challenge… he bet everyone he could shove an entire beignet in his mouth in one try.

He succeeded…. and was covered in powdered sugar.

We then wandered into Pat O’Brien’s, on a Monday night, the crowds are super light…. and for a holiday, i expected more people to be out. We sat and listened a bit to the dueling pianos, and then found a large enough table to hang out a while. I was able to tie both my cherry stems into knots, some skills you never forget 🙂

We of course wandered down Bourbon as well and got ourselves some Huge Ass Beers.

THENNN some genius decided it would be fun to make up a competition with these Huge Ass Beers…. 3 teams of 2, the first one to finish their beer before stepping foot into the hotel wins bragging rights. We all ended up dumping the last bits because lets face it… thats a lot of freaking beer. Nobody won.

The next morning we were up an moving at 8:30. My team is a well oiled machine. This is our 5th unveiling in the Southeast and the Unveiling team’s 15th. We all know our jobs and duties, and the chemistry is undeniable. We just work.

So well in fact, that we pulled out all the boxes around 9:15 and by 12:45 all we were waiting on was the hotel team to set up the ballroom. It felt weird, I kept thinking “what am I missing, what am I forgetting” but because everything had been planned out beforehand, it was just all done and we actually had time to breathe.

I was able to find coffee and medicine (for Cackalacky) and not rush through my shower. The mobile detailer was already there washing the wrapped cars, photog was arriving at 3:45, Saintsations at 4:15, Chairman isn’t coming, and agents are calling me left and right because they’re lost, but EARLY!! 🙂

We were called into a quick meeting because apparently now the Chairman IS coming again! Sweet, everyone knows their job, done lets go! The space was packed, which was awesome because my worst fear was that nobody was going to show up. I’d actually had a dream over the weekend that everything had gone wrong, and I didn’t know a single person there. It was nervewracking.

But my agents showed up! in DROVES. We set the room for 180 seats, we had to add 2 tables, making a grand total of 200!!! I was pumped. Everything flowed beautifully, I even made it through my speech and awards without stumbling. the Chairman didn’t end up making it, but we still had a great time!

The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, and a couple agents stayed back to celebrate the successfull event back on Bourbon 🙂

It felt like college all over, leaving at 11pm, coming back at 3:30am with only half the group and flopping face first into bed. Thankfully my 5:30am airport run turned into 8am, and I was able to get my car tire pressure checked before attempting to clean up my inbox.

The incredible support I had the last couple days has been humbling, and the cherry on top was getting a call from my Senior VP in the corporate office congratulating me on a job well done. I think he said “proud” about 50 times in our 10 minute phone call. Hell of a first impression to make.

I loved having the team in my territory, I already miss them all and they only left today. Cheers to my team, to a job well done, and to an awesome event I couldn’t have done without every single one of them.