That was one powerful room

Yesterday I spent most of my day downtown for the big pitch. I was a part of the "special forces" team (aka - set up and tear down committee). We were in our staging room when the pitching team arrived. While setting up and tearing down isn't the greatest job ever, it always helps to get in front of the top executives. How great is it that the CEO of our global company and our North American president both know me by name and were happy to see me when they walked in the door. I also met one of our executive vice presidents, who runs the New York office, and Linda Kaplan Thayer. Now, I didn't know who Linda Kaplan Thayer was but she is the CEO of the ad agency, Kaplan Thayer Group. Not only is she a successful business woman, but she was a judge for one of the projects on The Apprentice. How cool is that!?!

My job was to help set up the room when it was our turn to pitch. However, I ended up getting stuck and couldn't leave. It was a great opportunity to watch part of our global executive team doing what they do best. Not only was our powerhouse in the room, but they were pitching to GM's powerhouse. I knew some of them, but had heard of all of them. These were the top people. It was a great chance for me to watch this.

Afterwards, some of us had lunch with the New York office managing director. He was a great guy, very passionate about what he does and was very interested in what we thought and where we wanted to go. He told us that he was glad we were in the room because it gave us a chance to see what we'll be doing in the future. Wow! That's a little scary and really exciting to think about. He offered another co-worker and I the opportunity to come to the New York office - either to work or visit. He told us that if we wanted to work out of NY for just a couple of weeks to try it out, to let him know and he would arrange it. And, he definitely has the power to do so.

When I got back to the office I was exhausted, but had a ton of stuff to catch up on. Here is was a Friday afternoon and I said, "A nice cold beer sure sounds good right now." No sooner had I said that, then one of the supervisors came around passing out ice cold beers. My prayers had been answered and it tasted SO good. Later, I was on the phone and when I got off, I looked at my desk and my empty bottle had magically refilled itself. I tell you, that is what got me through the day. I sure picked the right career!