Something I'm good at:
I've been working in event planning and event space management for most of my career. Most notably I worked with the Asian Art Museum in san francisco for over four years. in the last two years I ended up at a financial firm kind of on a whim. Recently the firm has started doing seminars on retirement and my event managing skills are once again being put to good use.
I thrive on problem solving. My favorite thing to do is take a disasterous situation and pull it off. and it turns out I'm fucking good at it. it's probably one of the only areas in my life where I don't panic. I'm serene, level headed and ready to roll with the punchs. "can't" is not and option, there is a way to accomplish everything. Part of the reason I'm able to do this is simply years of expereince and working with some of the best event planners the Bay Area has to offer.
Last night we had a seminar. we got ther approximately an hour early and come to find out the room the set us up in is too small and not at all set up to be functional with our presentation. It simply will not work. Our event director is a young girl just out of school (I know i should be the event director, but my boss was unwilling to shift me out of my executive assistant position because he relies on my so much). anyway I can see the straihgt up panic in her eyes. She's got all the text book skills down, but one thiing school can't teach you is problem solving and how to put it in action. The resaurant manager says to me "you know if you guys are going to do another event here I have this other space on the enclosed patio, I can crank up the heat lamps , it's very comfortable." I looked at it and said, "you know what? if there anyway we can have this space tonight? The other space is just to small and i know my boss is going to be very unhappy and I just don't think we can pull off the presentation i there." the restaurant manager says : "sure!" my event director says: "there isn't time!" I say "oh sure there is." and the restaurant manager looks at his watch and says "we have 45 minutes, no problem." I say: I knew you could, let's do it!
the new room wasn't ideal either, but we made it work and the guest were happy. our young event director now thinks I'm a genius, and says she honestly would not have known what to do if I wasn't there. I told her it was mostly experience and she'd pick that up too as she goes along. it's all about visualizing an alternative and knowing what to ask for...and having having the confidence that you can accomplish just about anything in 45 minutes. heh. It feels good to be good at something.
So now all I need to do is learn how to be more like my event management self in the rest of my life. if I can do that, i'll be ok.
I've been working in event planning and event space management for most of my career. Most notably I worked with the Asian Art Museum in san francisco for over four years. in the last two years I ended up at a financial firm kind of on a whim. Recently the firm has started doing seminars on retirement and my event managing skills are once again being put to good use.
I thrive on problem solving. My favorite thing to do is take a disasterous situation and pull it off. and it turns out I'm fucking good at it. it's probably one of the only areas in my life where I don't panic. I'm serene, level headed and ready to roll with the punchs. "can't" is not and option, there is a way to accomplish everything. Part of the reason I'm able to do this is simply years of expereince and working with some of the best event planners the Bay Area has to offer.
Last night we had a seminar. we got ther approximately an hour early and come to find out the room the set us up in is too small and not at all set up to be functional with our presentation. It simply will not work. Our event director is a young girl just out of school (I know i should be the event director, but my boss was unwilling to shift me out of my executive assistant position because he relies on my so much). anyway I can see the straihgt up panic in her eyes. She's got all the text book skills down, but one thiing school can't teach you is problem solving and how to put it in action. The resaurant manager says to me "you know if you guys are going to do another event here I have this other space on the enclosed patio, I can crank up the heat lamps , it's very comfortable." I looked at it and said, "you know what? if there anyway we can have this space tonight? The other space is just to small and i know my boss is going to be very unhappy and I just don't think we can pull off the presentation i there." the restaurant manager says : "sure!" my event director says: "there isn't time!" I say "oh sure there is." and the restaurant manager looks at his watch and says "we have 45 minutes, no problem." I say: I knew you could, let's do it!
the new room wasn't ideal either, but we made it work and the guest were happy. our young event director now thinks I'm a genius, and says she honestly would not have known what to do if I wasn't there. I told her it was mostly experience and she'd pick that up too as she goes along. it's all about visualizing an alternative and knowing what to ask for...and having having the confidence that you can accomplish just about anything in 45 minutes. heh. It feels good to be good at something.
So now all I need to do is learn how to be more like my event management self in the rest of my life. if I can do that, i'll be ok.
But seriously, that's great! I have, in the past couple years, come to grips with the fact that I am a great mechanic and have the necessary skill sets to make a great automotive engineer, so I'm gonna run with it. You are totally right when you say what you say about experience. I've seen so many boneheaded ideas put into vehicles that it makes me wonder if any of these engineers have ever picked up a wrench.