It Was A Triumph, Darling

A couple of weeks ago, someone on my team invited me to a meeting to talk about an event being planned for prospective customers. They wanted my input and ideas. In reality, they had no ideas!

So I wrote a script for an interactive play that would make real the benefits of our software solution. I was the playwright, casting director, one of the actors, and director. Word got around about what was being planned, and our company executives seemed to like the concept, but since nothing like this had ever been done before, everyone (including and especially me) was plenty nervous. We had 8 airlines coming from China, Brazil, the US, Algeria, Chile, and Canada. I was worried about the different cultures coming together - would they think it was fun or painful?

Wednesday night I helped set up the ballroom of the hotel. Our set included check-in desks, a VIP lounge (complete with bar), economy waiting area, and even a plane. We handed out unique characters to each customer (I wrote those too) and asked them to act the part. It seemed like all the men got women characters and vice versa, which was pretty funny.Two of the characters I wrote were a grandmother and teenage granddaughter. A man from Brazil was the grandmother, and a Chinese man was the granddaughter. When we called early boarding for passengers needing extra assistance, they walked hand in hand to the steps, grandma walking with a limp. I didn't write that part, but they were having so much fun they did it anyway!

My boss played the First Officer of my fictional airline, and my Senior Vice President was our Captain. My SVP told me that morning (before the show) that he rarely ever says "wow", but he was saying it now. The event was a rousing success, and two of the prospective customers even asked us to take our show on the road to perform for their executives. One of my friends from London was in town, and he said that after a successful performance, stage players say "It was a triumph, darling". I thought that summed it up well.