Destination Beantown
Posted on January 31, 2008
Filed Under Travel Diary
Boston in January, not exactly a dream destination, but in this case a trip with a purpose. As my partners and I continue efforting to launch our career consulting business, we realized that conference calls spread across the country were fine for weekly progress updates, but they weren’t effective for real roll up your sleeves planning. So off to Boston I go for 2 days of offsite planning.
I can’t fire my travel agent because it’s me –after navigating 55 minutes of traffic I arrived at the check in counter only to find that I’d mistakenly booked my trip to depart on Sunday instead of Monday. Immediately visions of increased fares and long multi-stop flights popped into my mind. Gotta love Monday’s. Kudos to US Air for re-booking me on my desired flights without any increased cost. They even found me a non-stop for the return flight. Yes, I was floored.
Blind as a bat…almost –ticket crisis avoided I head to my gate and begin boarding. As I trek down the jetway I realize my glasses are still in the car. Now I really love Mondays.
Friends and family, but no expense account –After arriving at the home of my friend and business partner we hook up with his partner and my brother, who is also in town on business, and head out to dinner. I usually love nights out on the road, I especially love that I have an expense account that pays for it. However, as this is my business, and we don’t have and expense account, I realize dinner is actually on me. Ugh, must find corporate backing soon!
Some places still understand customer service –Our offsite meeting was held at the conference center at Endicott College. John, who runs the conference center, graciously offered us a conference room for the day including wireless internet, drinks, snacks, and lunch all comped. He also, spent close to an hour giving us a tour and answering our questions on how we might use his facility for a future conference. I realize this is all in the name of getting our business, but John and the entire staff at Endicott were incredibly professional and courteous. So guess what? They’ll get our business. Thanks John for help making our offsite meeting successful!
Wake-up call…err…dogs –One of the benefits with staying with friends instead of a hotel is that you get more of the comforts of home. In the case of my friends Jay and Nick, this includes a wake-up call courtesy of their two dachshunds, Stan and Ollie, at least their cute. Good morning boys.
Push for perfection- Here in Phoenix when the Suns go deep into the playoffs, they dominate everything on local TV. In Boston it was exactly the same, but maybe worse, or maybe it’s that I’m just up to here with hearing about how great the ‘Pats’ are. The local NBC affiliate is running with the theme ‘Push for Perfection’ and it usually runs 25-28 mins of the local news. They even talk more about the weather in Phoenix, than Boston.
Too cold to stay- Over the years I’ve found that the 2-3 day business trip is my favorite. A week is just too long to be away and a long day trip usually is just too much time on the plane. With a cold front moving into Boston, coupled with high winds, it’s definitely time to head home.
Until next time…
[tags] customer service, business travel, New England Patriots, Boston
It may be just me, I like when you give travel logs or day to day updates of things that are happening to you and how you deal with it… its great you keep a sense of humor and great outlook when things go bad…
Have a safe trip back to Suns land =)
Thanks Cap’n! Writing about my travel (mis)adventures helps keep things in perspective. I’m glad you like hearing about them, I was a little on the fence about adding them to the mix.
Yeah absolutely, include it more often in fact!! We spend a great deal of time at work (cough, looking at blogs), and you give a lot of great advice on how to deal with work environments, co-workers and changing jobs. But because we are at work so much, alot of little things happen. You writing about those only make it more personable and more interesting, especially on how you react and feel during the process (you know, leading by example for all of your co-workers!). I encourage it, and thanks for sharing!!!
Will do!
I can’t believe you didn’t make our friend from the South End pay for dinner!
Joyce Maroney’s last blog post..Doing the Talent Acquistion Limbo
Scott, you are always welcome to hang here in Beantown!
Jay Hargis’s last blog post..Friday Fun Facts
Love Beantown!