Normally I don’t blog about work, because I prefer to keep my professional life and personal life separate. However, I’m going to make an exception and blog about the reason I was in New Orleans last week.
Three times a year my company holds national bridge tournaments in different cities across North America. The tournaments run from Thursday of the first week to Sunday of the second week, and people come from around the world to attend them. The most recent one ran 12,000 tables in 11 days. The Monday-Wednesday before the tournament starts, the board of directors meets.
So I got down there Monday night of board meeting week. Tuesday I attended committee meetings, one on Internet bridge – meaning, the sanctioning of websites that function as online bridge clubs. I didn’t do anything in this one, just sat and listened. In the afternoon I attended a technology committee meeting, where I served as the technological expert of the company’s marketing department.
Wednesday I attended a meeting of the full 25-member board. Again, I didn’t have to do or say anything, just sat and watched as they introduced and discussed motions and received committee reports. It was interesting to listen to them conduct their business. Well, for a while it was. By mid-afternoon I was bored out of my mind and playing with my iPhone. Our senior director felt my pain and told me, “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off.” I was very appreciative of that.
Wednesday night I attended a dinner to honor the New Orleans volunteers who helped us put the tournament together. It was at Pat O’Brien’s on the River. I ended up at a table with my manager who is the marketing director, a couple of board members, and some volunteers. I wasn’t expecting much, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Food was delicious. There was an open bar and people were not shy about hitting it. There were speeches recognizing the locals and lots of applause. Everyone laughed and cheered and had a good time.
Thursday I was assigned to work with one of our tournament directors. As games start and end, she gathers up the results, puts them in proper format, and uploads them to our website. As webmaster, it was useful to see the process she went through, so I could think about enhancements to make her job easier. It also helped me understand that it takes some time to get results rounded up and posted when it’s an extremely large tournament like the ones we run.
I also got to see the offices the company had rented to run the tournament. There were desks for all the managers. There were tons of scorecards and other bridge supplies everywhere. There were radios, and I heard the tournament directors discussing how to set up the conference rooms over the radio, in order to maximize space while still giving our players as much comfort as possible. Very fascinating to watch the tournament come together.
The main thing I learned work-wise during my trip: Bridge players are really nice people. Quirky, yes, and they will admit that themselves. But everyone was just extremely nice and could not have treated me better. The board members especially. It was also fun to hang out with my co-workers in a setting other than the office. I certainly don’t think I would have had this much fun on a business trip, had I been working for a typical for-profit corporation.
One more NOLA post to come, and it’s the best post of all: Food and drink.