Today was the first day of
ConTemporal, the 2nd annual steampunk convention in Raleigh, NC.
About a month ago, their head of registration had to step down, and they asked
me to run reg. I’ve never run a con reg, though I’ve run many other aspects of cons
over the years. And I’ve run reg for business programs from 12-500 people, so
this wasn’t completely foreign ground to me. However, stepping in on such short
notice meant that I was playing catchup on planning and decisions made months
earlier. So I did the best I could to prepare and expected a fair amount of
onsite chaos.
I wasn’t disappointed.
But happily, the chaos wasn’t
really reg-related. In fact, we didn’t have any major reg problems, and nothing
that wasn’t easily handled by my stellar staff and volunteers.
So how does this
related to my horoscope for today? Well, reg is really all about people. Some
come in and know what they need, some don’t. Some are in a good mood and happy
to be there, some aren’t. Some have easy questions, some take a little more
work. I’m a people person, and this is what I do well. Help people. Fix
problems. Find answers. Make their day better.
For example, a lovely older lady
came in late this evening to see a former student of hers, with whom she had
traded emails, as he was performing on stage tonight. In the course of conversation,
she talked about some of the challenges she had that day, and I didn’t want to
add to them. It turned out that by the time we figured out when he was
performing, he was already on stage. I told her to go in and enjoy it, and
return to pay me afterward. I took a chance that she would. She could have walked
out, but she didn’t. She came back and paid and we talked some more, and the
musician came out and she introduced us, and he was obviously pleased that she
had come to see him. Total win. Will she come next year? Probably not. But he
might. And you never know how things will play out. The connections we make
with people play out in endlessly fascinating ways. Maybe all that happened was
that I helped two people feel happier. I call that a good day.
And indeed, things did indeed
make more sense by the end f the evening. Earlier chaos was resolved, things
are much better prepared and organized for the morning. Which means fewer
logistics to manage and more of what I really enjoy. Talking with people.
If you’re local, come and see me
at ConTemporal! I’ll probably be hanging out at reg. That’s where the party is
:)
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Time writing:
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~20 minutes
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June word
count:
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17,064
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