1.27.2006

San Antonio recap

It's been a over a week since I posted an entry.

It's been a busy time recovering from the San Antonio trip. We didn't touch down into DC on the tarmac until @ 1:00 am, Tuesday. We were supposed to arrive @ 5:30 pm, Monday. Our stop in Atlanta was delayed due to rain storms at the airport. Then, we were bumped off from our connecting flight due to a national regulation preventing more than 160 people on a 757 to fly into DC after 9:30 pm. At the time, it sounded ridiculous to me. I'm still in disbelief. Anyway, it has been catch up, catch up for the rest of the week. Catch up on work, catch up on sleep.

Here is the recap.

Friday afternoon - Arrived to San Antonio @ 3 pm with the boss. We shared the same flight. Fortunately, it was light conversation during the travel flight. Checked in the hotel, but missed the debrief meeting due to late arrival. The hotel had offered Venezuelan chocolates as we checked in. Delish. Lots and lots of people at the airport.

Friday night - Worked in the exhibit booth from 5 to 7 pm. Met with a couple distributors and vendors and caught up with fellow staff members I haven't seen lately.

7:30 pm - ? Go out to dinner with bosses and advisory board members. We went to Acenar, a nouveau Tex-Mex restaurant. The Customer Relations Manager's friend recommended the place. My first impression: very posh, very trendy and very loud. I recommend their Pork dishes and their desserts. What is interesting is the addition of cilantro to their tortillas. It was a productive dinner as we discussed industry trends and professional gossip. After dinner, I went directly to bed due to early breakfast meeting.

Saturday morning - As I walked out of the hotel lobby, I soon realized that it was very cold (in the 40s), and I didn't bring any coat or heavy jacket to San Antonio. I thought it stayed very warm in Texas. While waiting for the taxi in the cold, I noticed that the birds were chirping loudly. It wasn't annoying. In fact, the sounds were very cheerful.
Arrive at 7:00 am to a breakfast meeting highlighting a new product that will be beta released sometime in April or May 2006. Pamphlets, brochures, and a PowerPoint presentation were the main focus, but there was nothing tangible to review.

9:30 am - 10:30 am: Arrived to exhibit booth and talked with customers and users. Made notes for followup when I get back to the office.

Saturday afternoon

12:30 pm - 5:00 pm: Lunch with boss and colleague and various industry/distributor meetings. Took notes and met up with industry counterparts afterward.

5:30 pm - 10:30 pm: Went back to the hotel for much needed break. Met up with Marketing & Sales staff for dinner to catch up with industry gossip. Dinner was held at L'Italia. Food was innocuous, nothing really stood out. They didn't destroy my Ribeye steak. After dinner, we walked along the Riverwalk and visited the Alamo. I didn't realize the area was quite small. Most of the enclosure is now surrounded by office buildings and tourist traps

Declined an invitation to drink at the hotel bar with colleagues. Went to my room for some needed sleep. Another breakfast meeting to attend in the morning.

Sunday morning

8:00 am - Attend the organization's breakfast meeting. We sponsor a breakfast meeting to convey the latest product and organization updates. Customers are invited to ask questions about updates, issues, complaints, etc. This is a time in which we hear our users think and feel about our products. A number of board members attended the event as well.

10:00 am - 1:30 pm: More face time at the exhibit booth. Talked with various customers.

1:00 pm - Meet with vendor about product delivery issues. Boss forgot to pick me up from the exhibit booth. Thus I ran and searched on 4 different floors to finally catch up with them.

3:00 pm - 5:00 pm - Attended a new technologies/industry trends session on upcoming standards.

6:30 pm 10:30 pm - Dinner at Pesce with colleagues and the big bosses. Great meal and dessert. The service was better than average. Went back to the hotel to pack up for the flight home.

Monday morning

10:00 am - Attended a product launch demo. Unfortunately, it was postponed until 10:40 am. So I sat in on another product demo, but I couldn't hear anything since I was sitting in the back. Bagged the demo, I explored the exhibit hall and picked up a number of freebies for staff.

11:00 am - Met with my bosses and we left for the airport. I read my newspapers while the bosses talked. I can tell my direct supervisor was getting antsy to leave San Antonio.

Tuesday morning

1:00 am - Finally arrive at the Washington airport.

1:30 am - At home, I check messages and mail. Then, I finally get some sleep.

9:00 am - 10:00 am: Bosses and I meet at weekly management meeting for review.

The rest of the week went uneventful. And how was your week?

2 comments:

freethoughtguy said...

Ah, San Antonio ...

This is where American Atheists will meet for the 2006 convention!

Traveler said...

Free Thinker, thanks for your comment. Ya'll will enjoy San Antonio! Please know that I will be praying for you guys while you are there! Traveler