So tonight I'm going to play a little catch up. Only because Friday was full of interesting little tidbits that I left out in the previous post. I had to make my Friday night post short for two reasons: 1, because I had limited battery use while traveling, 2, because I had two very distracting friends in the front seat while I was trying write, and 3, because when I mentioned that I couldn't talk too much in the car because I needed to blog, Blake told me it was the dorkiest thing he had ever heard me say. I will admit, It's a little embarrassing every time I have to say the words 'my' and 'blog' together. So here is the rest of it...
Friday started out as just one of those days...except a couple of hours earlier. We had another Hood-Hargett monthly breakfast. At this breakfast, there was no legendary Hugh McColl speaking, but there was a man named Chip Bell, a consultant based in Texas who essentially based his entire speech on customer service on his love affair with the the Jack Daniels distillery and how they keep their customers loyal. He had some valid points, like involving your customers in your process. Make them feel like their participation is specifically important to the success of your business. Actively and personally seek feedback, and when you are seeking feedback, shy away from the defense mode. Essentially, make your customer's feel like you are personally invested in them....I think. His speech really wasn't the most memorable part of the entire breakfast. The Jerald Melburg Gallery was the sponsor for this event, and the sponsor always has the opportunity to speak. Mark Packer, better known for his work as the Packman- a sarcastic sports talk local radio celeb in Charlotte, has been MC'ing these events for seven years and as the MC, he must introduce the both the speaker and the sponsor. Well, if any of you are familiar with Mr. Packer's tone, you would not be surprised that when he gets up to speak at these events, you can kind of feel the tension rise, like no one knows what he's about to say, and it could be get a little hairy. Sure enough, it got hairy on Friday. Mark Packer introduced the sponsor with a story about his latest trip to France, where he visited the Louvre. He recalled the moment when he saw the Mona Lisa and said "Art, I just don't get it. I mean that thing was tiny, and there were about 50 people standing around it!" We got an email later that day that said the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club would be going in a different direction for their MC choice at any further Breakfast Club meetings. A lesson in social graces for sure.
Friday started out as just one of those days...except a couple of hours earlier. We had another Hood-Hargett monthly breakfast. At this breakfast, there was no legendary Hugh McColl speaking, but there was a man named Chip Bell, a consultant based in Texas who essentially based his entire speech on customer service on his love affair with the the Jack Daniels distillery and how they keep their customers loyal. He had some valid points, like involving your customers in your process. Make them feel like their participation is specifically important to the success of your business. Actively and personally seek feedback, and when you are seeking feedback, shy away from the defense mode. Essentially, make your customer's feel like you are personally invested in them....I think. His speech really wasn't the most memorable part of the entire breakfast. The Jerald Melburg Gallery was the sponsor for this event, and the sponsor always has the opportunity to speak. Mark Packer, better known for his work as the Packman- a sarcastic sports talk local radio celeb in Charlotte, has been MC'ing these events for seven years and as the MC, he must introduce the both the speaker and the sponsor. Well, if any of you are familiar with Mr. Packer's tone, you would not be surprised that when he gets up to speak at these events, you can kind of feel the tension rise, like no one knows what he's about to say, and it could be get a little hairy. Sure enough, it got hairy on Friday. Mark Packer introduced the sponsor with a story about his latest trip to France, where he visited the Louvre. He recalled the moment when he saw the Mona Lisa and said "Art, I just don't get it. I mean that thing was tiny, and there were about 50 people standing around it!" We got an email later that day that said the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club would be going in a different direction for their MC choice at any further Breakfast Club meetings. A lesson in social graces for sure.
Sarah wasn't at work on Friday so it was just me in that big office, and I actually got a lot more done. Will and I went to meet Mike Crum, Chief Operating Officer of Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, at the Mint Street lot where we would be designating space for a tailgate for 600 people from the CRVA. They had a great idea to do their Christmas Party at the ACC Championship Game. They are using the money they would spend on a big Christmas party and purchase a large block of tickets for their employees and family members instead. The Baseball Lot is one that Will decided to purchase for the games so that we would have control over the use of it, so we have decided to use it for Tailgate space for clients like the CRVA. Other than that, a large portion of Friday was spent on ticket programs (ones which, I found out today we might not be using). I feel like this has been happening a lot lately. Sarah and I will work on something for weeks, drafting it and getting it approved, and then changing it (upon request), redrafting it, changing it again, and then dropping whatever it is (upon suggestion). I guess that is the life of the intern...use them as the guinea pig to see what works.
Like I mentioned, I went up to Chapel Hill this weekend, thanks to the generosity of Blake and Bridwell. It was a nice trip, minus a couple of hours. Saturday there was this Clemson game. Enough Said. But on Saturday night, we stopped by Greensboro to have dinner with my parents. Mom made Shrimp and Grits, which were awesome, and it was nice for my parents to get to meet some of my friends. I did find myself laughing about nothing...for no reason at some points. It was very awkward TV show moment of me, but I just couldn't help it. I was waiting for either my friends or my family to share SOMETHING with the other part of the group that I did not want shared...Luckily, that didn't happen too often. Essentially, they just all agreed I was sort of a smart ass, and the conversation flowed naturally from there.
Kevin Conrad, Chris Conrad(the Conrads' cousins from Chicago), and Kevin's girlfriend had come into town this past weekend for the Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers game this weekend, and Uncle Bobby managed to scramble up lots of tickets to the game, so we all tailgated and went to the Bears VS. Panthers game on Sunday. After a bad weekend of football, at least from my perspective, I decided to forget about my home team loyalties and cheer for a winning team. Go Bears. Ryan and I got to sit in Club seats, which meant that we had the best seats in the house to watchwatch ANY more football for the rest of the weekend.
This week has been a busy one, even in just 2 days. We had Meineke (Like actual members of the company) join us for our Monday bowl game meeting for the first time since I've been working. I had almost forgotten that Meineke Car Care was an actual company, with an identity outside of the bowl, because this is the only experience I've had with Meineke...even though I've probably said and typed the words several hundred times over the past couple of months.
Colin, over in Raycom invited Sarah and I to sit in on their New Media meeting which was actually interesting, because it got some ideas flowing for things we can be doing better with Bowl and Championship media. Last week I noticed that we have really dropped the ball on our attention to our social media pages, and so we've tried to be more intentional about our social media use this week. Ticketing has been the other item on the agenda for the week. And with a few new projects, I feel like I have gotten a crash course in Ticketing, mapping availability, and pricing over the past 2 days.
Alright, a police man just knocked on the door. He had the wrong address...but bottom line, it's time to go to bed after a scare like that!
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