Orienteering for the future…

So, let’s get started with the ABA In Review. I arrived in Virginia Beach around 9:00 Friday evening, after a very long drive (made long by plenty of stops along the way to get last minute supplies and items needed for the next week). Went to the Convention Center the next morning to register, and get to work.

I wanted to start giving back right away, so I signed up to work in Orientation. I guess it only makes sense, given all the teaching I do. But I never expected to have so much fun there! I sat as an ambassador for a while, answering questions, but the real fun was giving the floor tours. If you’ve never taken one (or if it’s been a while), the tour guides wear a microphone (the “Madonna setup” as Chris Shepler calls it), while the people taking the tour wear headphones. It’s a great way to do this, as it lets the guide talk without having to raise their voice, or disrupt anything around them.

Of course, I ended up going off script frequently, but never got a complaint. I tried hard to answer (and encourage) questions throughout the tours, and had one 30 minute tour take 55 minutes! Chris even came out looking for us, and Lois told me later that they were all in the Orientation Center saying “Where’d he go with that tour?”. Hey, when they’re asking good questions, I’m not going to cut them off, or make them stop!

It was also funny how many friends would come up during the tours for a hug, a quick “Hiya!”, or just to be disruptive. Guess I learned what kind of friends I really do have…the best kind! And people really enjoyed having the tour stop near them…we always got plenty of cheers from the Hard Rock booth, greetings to the group from the CTIS booth, and I loved it on the one tour I gave Monday when Chef Clayton Sherrod from Birmingham gave us a quickie cooking show in his booth!

I can’t encourage everyone enough to get involved! Working in Orientation is great, as is working in Resource Central, Registration, Education, CTIS, and other areas. The ONLY way ABA works every year is the amazing number of volunteers from all parts of the industry who band together to make the convention work. It doesn’t take away from your networking time…if anything, I did MORE networking either while on tour, or as a result of doing a tour, than I did last year when I just attended the show. So when the opportunity arises next year, sign up and help out in an area of need. You will be so very glad you did!

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