Pushing buttons in Las Vegas

I was in Las Vegas last week (staying at The Venetian) for our annual sales kickoff conference.  It was a good week but I had a lot more to do than at past events which increased the stress and workload and reduced the partying and sight-seeing.

On Wednesday afternoon I loaned my laptop and services to a main stage presentation for the APJ team (Asia Pacific and Japan).  All I had to do was cue up and press play for a number of videos on my laptop and I'm pleased to say I did it flawlessly (even though I'd only had one hour sleep).  The day was long because we were at the theatre for AV checks at 8am, even though the session didn't start till 3:30pm.

On Thursday morning I hosted an all-hands session for the APJ Presales team.  For this session I was organiser, speaker and facilitator.  It went smoothly and everyone got involved in the round-table discussion time.  It's great to hear the buzz of conversation as people from all different countries talk and share best practices and ideas.  A highlight of the morning was Andy's presentation about Application Lifecycle Management being exactly like the movie Inception.  Complete with a soundtrack Andy had everyone's attention, including the APJ big boss Anthony who was sitting quietly up the back.  Anthony praised and briefly described Andy's presentation in the APJ main session on Friday morning and mentioned to me later how Andy is great at taking a quirky approach to his presentations.

A second highlight was the awards ceremony.  For the session I had a "heroes" theme with a few quotes on screen and saying a few things about being heroic, which culminated in the Presales Superheroes awards to recognise the top presales consultant from each country in APJ.  As well as a trophy and a bottle of champagne, we also gave each winner a superhero cape.  It was very funny because the cape (ordered online) was red like Superman but had a high collar like Dracula.

On Friday morning I was at the control desk again, this time pressing the button to advance powerpoint slides which were used to establish the scene and as a backdrop to a skit.  Now you might be thinking by now that I am a highly paid button-pusher and don't do any real (or hard) work, but I was actually co-writer, producer and director of the skit, along with my buddies Helen and Michelle. It went really well with the actors (roped-in colleagues from the Singapore office) doing a great job and being very funny on little sleep.  We were in a theatre so had proper lighting and props (and no, thats not me in the photo).  I also enjoyed getting a glimpse into the back-of-house preparation, language and activities that go into running a performance (or presentations in our case).

I'm now much more relaxed, if a bit jet-lagged - it's great to be home again.  I did find time to get to both the Outlet Mall and Fry's Electronics so it wasn't entirely work.  And all those other shiny buttons on the pokie machines in the casino?  I just walked right past them.