I’ve finally ended my two and a half weeks of straight travel and am on the way home and could not be happier. This past week I flew out to New York for two days, flew back into Portland, spoke at two conferences in one day, and then drove back to Corvallis only to leave 24 hours later for a conference in San Francisco.
Here are the recaps from each venue:
New York - I got in at about 1 am in the morning, and realized that I had to catch a 5 am train for a meeting the next morning an hour and a half away. After finally getting to sleep, I slept for about half an hour until I was on the train out to Long Island. I got in at about 7 am, and sat in a McDonalds for another hour and a half until the credit union opened. Luckily the meeting went well, and I headed back into Manhattan. The next day Bernadette and I attended a photo shoot for an upcoming cover story, which turned out great and we flew out a few hours later. On the ride out I took some photos from the cab, and included one of them, which I think turned out pretty sick.
Portland - After a long day of flying, and being delayed on the runway for 2 hours while the JetBlue incident happened where the landing gear malfunctioned; I got into Portland at 1 am. Apparently I have a tendency for 1 am arrivals. The next day I spoke at two conferences, both of which went very well. I stayed in Portland until about midnight with the conference attendees and then drove home, finally able to sleep in my own bed. About 24 hours later it was time for a conference in San Francisco.
San Francisco - We made some good sales progress at the conference in San Francisco and met with a number of credit union partners and prospects. However, the one thing I get sick and tired of, are people who talk down to me. When checking into the conference, I was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a brass baseball hat. We still had to set up our booth, and when we checked in, the guy at the desk said that there was a CEO networking reception in the exhibit hall, “and that I might want to change.” Imagine the most sarcastic tone of voice you can imagine. I responded and told him, “Oh you mean jeans and a T-shirt isn’t acceptable? I figured I’d just wear this. Actually I spoke at this conference last year, so don’t worry.” Imagine my response being equally as sarcastic. It was an absolute joke. It’s a great idea to belittle people who are paying thousands of dollars to attend your conference?minus the great idea part.
On Sunday it was Tom’s birthday, and unfortunately I was sick and we weren’t really able to go out, which isn’t such a bad thing, because downtown San Francisco is probably the sketchiest place I have ever been. Instead, I was going to treat him to dinner on the top floor, 46 floors above ground. I took some pictures and included them below. However, by the time our reservation was up, it was the 4th quarter of Monday night football, so we chose to go down to the lobby bar and finish watching the game instead. We’re not really $30 a meal kinds of guys anyway.
The second to last day of the conference Tom and I went down to Fisherman’s Wharf where we looked out on the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, which I included a picture of as well. The highlight however, was an area where about 100 sea lions were sun bathing on floating docks in the water. We easily spent 20 minutes watching, as they barked at each other and would run and push each other off the docks, playing the sea lion version of ‘king of the mountain.’
Alright, the plane is landing, gotta jet. Get it, jet, plane…yes I know I’m a loser.
Alcatraz
New York
