I went to Florida every January for a number of years to build an on-site network for a client's National Sales Meeting. The hours were long and the pace was hectic, but the crew always had a great time. The meetings were always held in very exclusive resorts and we were generally treated like royalty by the staff; who seemed to be completely unaware that we, too, were there as hired-help rather than the guests of honor.
We typically arrived on site a couple of days before the meetings actually started to build a stage, set up sound, lighting and video projection systems and build a temporary computer network on site to allow the presenters to work on their presentations up to the moment they went on stage, yet still have them ready to go without a hitch once they started for what the client expected to be a flawless show.
The show days were typically pretty tense. The setup and teardown days were a different story entirely. We still worked long hours at a hectic pace, but the pressure was pretty low. We took advantage of every opportunity to kick back and relax whenever possible. One way involved scheduling our day to allow us to head out for a nice dinner.
One night in particular still brings a smile to my face every time I think of it. The resort's concierge highly recommended a tapas restaurant in town for dinner. Our group of eight guys took a break from our setup routines to head over for a delicious, laid back dinner on the night before the event was starting. We got back to the room around 8:00 to find it full of people setting up chairs and draping off areas of the room.
The client's show director was in a near frenzy as she tried to make sure everything was in place for a perfect kickoff in the morning. She came over for a status report and asked where we had gone for dinner that night. None of us remembered the name of the place so I told her, "We went to a Tapas place that the concierge recommended."
Her eyes opened very wide and she nearly shouted, "You guys went to a topless place?!?!?!?!"
The whole room got very quiet as everyone stopped to see what had caused the director to freak out so close to the start of the event. Eight guys broke into laughter almost in unison; which only served to confuse her all the more.
"No," I was finally able to explain, "We went to a tapas place; not a topless place. Tapas - as in T. A. P. A. S."
Virtually everyone in the room joined in the laughter and her face immediately turned bright red and she, too, quickly joined in the laughter.
The conversation proved to be like a giant relief valve on the poor woman's heart - the tension of the coming event suddenly forgotten as we all enjoyed the discussion of how we had NOT gone to a topless place.
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