This effort paid off, and as an added bonus I got to watch the morning Awards breakfast from their “Best of the Caribbean” food and beverage competitions.  How exciting it was to watch the teams of F&B professionals from each island destination compete for top awards in all kinds of categories ranging from best entrée to best desert to best cocktail.

I have to say it was just a little intimidating to look at that stage, as although it wasn’t my biggest audience it was definitely the biggest A/V production I’ve ever presented at.  In the picture below of the stage you can see the side panel projection screens where they show close up shots of you presenting while you are talking; all this made me feel more like a rock star vs. a conference speaker.  Here’s a picture of the stage during the F&B awards: 

                                                         

Although it was difficult to read the audience as I really couldn’t see them due to the bright stage lights, it was a good sign when I was completely mobbed after my speech by enthusiastic participants who had come up to thank me for my talk and to talk about bringing me to their various resorts and destinations.  Here’s a picture of me presenting that day, along with one I took with Alex Sanguinette, the CEO of the Caribbean Hotel Association:
       

As usual, right after my talk it was time to hit the road again, and I had just enough time to stop by my house and check on Cathy, who was working from home so that the plumber could come and install our new water heater, which was a relief as I was increasingly worried that our old one would burst and leak all over our house when we were out of town.  (More on the irony of this at the end of this section.)

After changing clothes I headed back to the airport to catch my flight to Las Vegas, via Philadelphia.  Arriving right on time in Philly, I had enough time to grab some dinner and was happy to see we were boarding on time for LAS.  But much to my dismay, after boarding the plane we had to sit for 2 hours and 45 minutes on the runway due to a weather delay.  This was especially hard to understand since the weather outside looked fine, but apparently there was weather affecting traffic en route.  Thankfully I’d eaten and had sense enough to bring along a sandwich, as it turned my 4 hour flight let into a 7 hour ordeal.

Still, thanks to the time difference, I was able to arrive back at Golden Nugget with enough time to get a decent night’s sleep and to be ready to train the next day.  Having been there just 3 weeks prior to conduct the reservations training needs assessment, it was very exciting to see that they’d already implemented a significant number of my the recommendations from my report.  It was really fun conducting their training, especially since we were doing so from the private boardroom in the executive offices of this historic Las Vegas hotel, which was where Steve Wynn got his start over two decades ago.  It was especially intriguing to look into the shadow box collage the new owners had continued to display in the corner which contained a wide range of Golden Nugget and Steve Wynn memorabilia.  Here’s a picture of it:
                               
                                            

The new owner, Landry’s Restaurants & Hotels, has even bigger visions than Mr. Wynn, and over the course of the two days I really enjoyed working with their staff, which included both seasoned veterans who remembered when I first trained this team in 1991 as part of a project I did for its parent company at the time, Mirage Resorts, and a lot of brand new agents who were probably in Pre-K at the time!  It was especially great to reconnect with their reservations manager, Kerry McDonald, whom I’d gotten to know socially as well 15 years before.  Here's our picture together:

                                     

Next morning I was back on board USAirways yet again, with the game plan being for me to fly home to pick-up the kids and Cathy, and then to leave for the 4 hour drive to Orlando where we were going for two reasons.  On Monday I’d be speaking at the HSMAI Revenue Manager’s Strategy Conference in Orlando, but more importantly over the weekend we were meeting Cathy’s sister and niece, who were in town for a youth softball tournament.  Cathy had never seen her niece play softball, and since she’s now 14 years old it was about time!  We were also excited to take her niece to Disney World for the very first time. 

Thankfully I landed on time, and soon after packing and re-packing, Cathy and I had loaded up the mini van and were picking up our kids from their mom’s house.  The drive to Orlando from Ft. LauderdalelaceName is usually easy, with turnpike rest areas easily available and only 3.5 hours to go.  But as fate would have it we were delayed by more than 2 hours due to two separate traffic accidents.  So as midnight approached and I was the only one still awake in the van, I was working diligently to fight off drowsiness, to the point that I missed our turnpike exit and added another 30 minutes yet.

So with only 5 hours sleep the next day we were up early getting ready to head to Disney’s Wide World of Sports to see the softball game.  Good thing we were early, as we spent over an hour just trying to find the softball tournament.  We walked up just in time to say hello to our niece just before the first pitch.  As fate would have it, Cathy was still not to see her niece in action, because at the start of the game she was returning from the restroom when her niece came up to bat for the first time.  After knocking the first pitch into left field for a single, poor Candice sprained her right ankle hitting the first base bag.  Cathy returned seconds later to find she’d missed Candice’s only action for the rest of this tournament. Still, we had a great time with them that weekend and enjoyed taking them to Animal Kingdom on Saturday and Magic Kingdom on Sunday.

All too early my alarm clock was ringing again and before anyone else in the hotel room stirred I was dressed in my suit and headed out for the Orlando Orange County Convention Center, where I was to be the emcee for the 4^th annual HSMAI Revenue Management Strategy Conference.  Good thing I left early, as by the time I walked from my car in the vast parking lot to the meeting location in the convention center I’m certain I walked 3 miles, made worse due to some bad signage and incomplete directions.  Still I was there well ahead of schedule to make my last minute preparations as the emcee. 

Usually, my conference presentations are at least 90 minutes if not a half day, and although I was only to speak for about 8 minutes total I’d prepared just as long if not longer.  This was not only because I wanted to come through for my fellow board of directors as I faced some of the brightest minds in the hospitality industry today, but also because this audience included some of my nearest and dearest client friends.  Looking out in the audience I saw the faces of at least a dozen clients that I’d trained just this year, and another two dozen who’s hotels or companies I’d trained in the past. 

As the group’s original advisor for three years from its inception, I was very proud to see all that this year’s board had accomplished.  It was even more exciting to see 65 new participants adding to our record turnout of 259 participants!  Here’s a picture of me presenting that day:
                                     
Although I really really wanted to stay for the networking/cocktail reception after the event, I had to sneak out right before the closing remarks to head back to Disney to collect Cathy and the kids and to drive back home to Ft. Lauderdale .  Luckily for us the traffic was extremely light on the way home, and we dropped the kids back off at their mom’s and headed to our house by 9:30pm.  After so long on the road, and with another trip coming up in 36 hours, it would be good to be home even if only for a while.