#at least I have a massage to destress on Saturday

[skyler10fic]

The neurodivergent urge to explode in frustration as the smoke alarm goes off for no reason while filling out a redundant long form of questions that don’t match their answer formats! And hives on my hands for no reason! And now wondering if they are from being exposed to something at the doctor's office yesterday!

AHHHHHH

[alexwhoneedsfriends-blog]

Who Needs The Festival

THE FESTIVAL.

How do I even begin to talk about one of the greatest experiences of my life?

The Conference

I worked with the Conference Department during the Festival. It took place during the first four days and A LOT happened. The interns were instructed to meet at our temporary tech center at 6:45 am. We had to get there early to attend the morning staff meetings. It was great hearing about what other departments were focusing on and anything to be on the lookout for during the day. That first meeting made the experience feel real. I was going to be a part of something much larger than my myself or my department. On that first day, I was nervous, scared, excited, and tired. All. The. Feels. After the meetings, and a provided breakfast, we each went to our stationed rooms and prepared for the day. I had done a lot of prep working leading up to the conference. I researched my panels and panelists, I made a powerpoint to keep track of my room’s schedule and names, I checked in on the interest of these panels through sign-ups, etc. I tend to want to know as much as possible before I go into situations. I’m a “worst case scenario” thinking person, so I want to make sure everything's going right to the best of my abilities before the WCS creeps in.

The first day a learning curve day. Things didn’t go wrong, but it wasn’t smooth. By day three, even with some odd people and odd things present, I was running like the machine that I am. I was communicating with my volunteers, meeting panelists and moderators, making announcements, and sessions were running well. I was even finding time to actually enjoy the speakers and learning a lot from the experience. At the end of every day, our department would meet up to recount the day’s events, learning what we could be doing better for the next day and answering questions. After being in our own little world for hours, it was great to have this time to destress, vent, and laugh together. We were all going through this together. The last day of the Conference, we had a really long meeting where we went into more details about events and talked about possible improvements for next year.

It was a long four days. I was tired. I was running on adrenaline. I was busy. Most moments of the day, there was something that I was supposed to be doing. I was happy. It was great. I got to experience amazing speakers and call it “work”!

Conference Story 1: What the…?

The biggest issue I had during the Conference was mainly with AV. It wasn’t that it was malfunctioning. It was usually working, and most panels only required the microphones on. A few were a bit more complicated and maybe used a powerpoint or showed clips. Each day, I had an AV person stationed in my room. The first two days were great. The AV person and I were communicating wonderfully. The next two days were super odd. I had this one girl who was nice but maybe she just wasn’t as experienced. Any time more AV than microphones were used, two or three other AV people would come in and out. That’s fine. Whatever it takes to make sure things are working properly and panelists and registrants are happy. It was during one of the closed workshops when things got odd.

There was a three-hour, closed workshop at the end of Saturday. Only about 15 people were invited. The organizers weren’t going to use the microphones but they did have some powerpoint presentations and videos, so we had multiple AV people in and out in addition to the girl who stayed in the room (in my opinion, doing nothing). I did notice that one guy, younger than the rest, also kept coming in and out but wasn’t really doing anything. I had seen him earlier in the day because he dropped off a jacket for the AV girl. Every time he would enter during this workshop, either she would walk from the front of the room to the back to talk to him or he would meet her up at the front. This happened several times. Then, one time, I noticed that they both were sitting for for a good amount of time before they left again. It had been a long day, and a long weekend so far, so this was not super high on my priority list but I was definitely going to mention it at our department meeting later. Then, they came back in and stayed at the back of the room, where I was. She sat down, and he stood behind her. At this time, our Conference Coordinator entered the room to see how things were going. We chatted for a little bit and took a few moments to breathe and “relax”. While we were both sitting there, I noticed that the guy was massaging the girl… GROSS. One of my least favorite forms of PDA. Not only did I notice, but my boss noticed. I told her I would take care of it. She left and shortly after, the AV guy left too. Don’t worry, he soon returned again. The girl had gone back to the front to sit and he hung around the door. I asked him if he was AV. He said yes. I asked if he was AV for this room. He bent down to my seated level, and over my shoulder pointed and told me no, but she (the AV girl) was. I told him that this was a closed event and he couldn’t just stay and hangout. He said ok, told me to give the girl this jacket, and left. I went up to the front of the room and gave her the jacket, and I thought that was the end of that.

I recounted these events at our nightly meeting. The Conference Coordinator backed me up and added how she felt weird about the PDA. Another intern asked me what the AV girl looked like. I described her. He then noted that she was in and out of his room all day talking to his AV guy. WOAH!!! He also told us that his AV guy asked if he could borrow the intern’s jacket, and this must have been the jacket that was given to the AV girl. NOT COOL BRO. Who borrows a jacket from someone to give to someone else in another room for parts of the day? We were all slightly weirded out, but it was a nice laugh at the end of the day.

The next day, I entered my room and the AV girl was there again. I knew that our Conference Director had talked to the head of the AV department, but I wasn’t sure if this AV girl was told any specifics. She gave me a warm greeting and we talked about movies while we set up the room for the first panel of the day. Before the panel began, our Conference Director stopped by to check on things. She asked if the AV girl in the room was the one I was talking about yesterday. I said yes. The CD then proceeded to go talk to her. A few moments passed. Before the CD left, she told me to let her know if I had any problems that day. I told her OK and went about my day.

It get’s better. Our meeting that night was almost three hours long. Our CD bought us appetizers and drinks, so it was also fun. We went around in a circle and gave our final reports. Mine wasn’t too long, but I had a couple suggestions for next year, especially regarding AV. I then asked the CD about the conversation she had with my AV girl that morning. Basically:

CD: Hi, are you working AV in this room?

AVG: Yes.

CD: And you were working in here yesterday too?

AVG: Yes.

CD: I got some complaints yesterday from some registrants and panelists about you behavior yesterday. They said you were showing a lot of PDA with your boyfriend yesterday. I just want to let you know, if I hear anything from your Room Manager about you today, you are out of the festival.

AVG: My boyfriend? No. That’s my BROTHER.

CD: Boyfriend. Brother. Whoever he is, if we see him in here today you will both be out.

WHAT THE…?!?!?!?!?! BROTHER!?!?!?!?! I hope not. That is not the kind of PDA that you show with your brother. We all agreed that was ridiculous. Right? Hopefully not.

This very quickly became a department inside joke. We joked about it at the closing party. When I saw the AV girl a couple weeks later at the book festival, I made sure to mention it in the office the following week. Nothing brings people closer together than awkward/mind blowing experiences.

Next time on “AWNF”: Conference Story #2, the films, the parties

Yo! Sorry for the surprise hiatus. This took me much longer than I thought to write. I also wasn’t planning to split the post into two parts, but I think we’ll all appreciate this choice! May your 2017 be better than 2016 - no shade to 2016, you should want every year to be bigger and better than the last… but for real tho, a little shade.