S5E1: Summer Recap

We're back! Did you miss us? In today's episode I talk about my travels with our new normal and touched on some observations I've noticed while traveling internationally.  I also sharing some exciting changes that are going to happen this Fall! There are some new team members to EEI so things may look, sound, and feel different.

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Transcript

Dr. K
Hello, hello, everybody. Oh my goodness, I am so excited to be back recording on the podcast. This is kind of weird. I'm not gonna lie standing in front of the microphone. I was used to doing it multiple times a week. Throughout the summer, I had told myself I was still going to record and kind of fill my backlog for this fall, because scheduling this fall is a little hectic. And I sat down to record my first one and I said, nope, I can't do it. Meetings and events is just so timely, educations so timely, I can't, I don't feel comfortable pre recording something months in advance. It's already outdated at that time. And so I truly took three months off and this is my very first time coming back in the podcast. It's two weeks before this will air. So it's kind of the beginning to middle of August, and I'm just jazzed to be back.

I did so much this summer. I know a lot of people, “post-COVID”, (though COVID still very much a thing). Lots of travel, I had a lot of business travel, I had a lot of personal travel. I was in Costa Rica for a week. And just over a week in North Carolina, Minnesota, South Dakota, Kansas, Boston, I'm preparing to go to Denmark and to Dubai. I'm just so excited. There's so much going on. 

The one thing as I reflect back on my summer over the last three months, really kind of stuck out to me was traveling to Costa Rica. I traveled to Costa Rica in May. And so it was right after the semester ended and I jumped on a plane and went down there. And I will say the way that the United States is handling COVID and COVID protocols, and the way that other countries are, and it almost made me a little ashamed to be an American, I'm not gonna lie. I was a little disappointed in all of us as individuals. And I know I have a global audience. I actually pulled the statistics for the podcast. And let me tell you, y'all, oh my goodness, there are so many people from so many countries listening to this. I am just so humbled and so flabbergasted. When my intern pulled the stats for the year and kind of shared them with me. I was like, oh, my goodness, we've literally reached all... we have people listening in Africa. We have people from six of the seven continents. This is just crazy. Thank you all so much for listening to my little podcast, because to me, it's just my little podcast. Anyways, I digress. 

So I was going to Costa Rica and it was so interesting. It was my first time on a plane, in whatever it was 15 months, and I'm flying on the plane, and we're getting ready to land in Costa Rica. And the flight crew came on and they said, “Attention everybody…. to help with social distancing, of course, we wear a mask the entire time, to help with social distancing, we're asking everyone to remain in their seats. Please wait until the entire row in front of you departs the plane and then you guys stand up and then you guys depart the plane and go row by row without standing, crowding the aisles doing all of that” Now, if you've ever traveled in the US, you know that when the airplane hits the ground, you already hear the seatbelt unbuckling you can hear the click, click, click, click, click. And the minute the light goes off, people are jumping up and grabbing. And it's like what's the rush the doors not open. And even if you have a connecting flight you're running late for, you jumping up and tapping your foot impatiently is not going to make them open up the doors any faster.  Just need a little bit of perspective here. But I was truly, truly amazed, truly amazed. Everybody did it. Everybody wore their masks the entire time. Of course I flew an international airline so not a US based airline. And everybody wore their masks and her way they didn't complain and they actually followed the directions. And then we got off the plane and we're going through the airport, going through customs and everyone standing on their dot. Everyone's being super responsible. Everyone's wearing their mask following policies and customs went really smoothly and I enjoyed just a tremendous 10 days away, loving every moment of it on the ocean. 

And let me tell you about hospitality. The, the suite that I stayed at was an exclusive adults, romantic couples all suite stay, I don't know the exact tagline they used. But I was like, I love my child, I love my daughter. But it would be really great to go somewhere and not have a lot of children around so I can just kind of decompress. And I was working on a special project, kind of top secret. And I spent most of my vacation actually reading and doing that. But it was totally worth it. I'll talk about that in a future podcast. And I just, in Costa Rica, it was just so incredible how responsible everybody was. And even if they didn't agree with the policy, they recognized that, that these businesses or organizations or the airlines, they had a policy and that you were following them, you were following the policy, the posted policy. 

And it was almost when the wheels hit the ground, I flew through Florida. And so I guess I was in Florida too, though only at the airport. And when the wheels hit down and coming back into the US in Florida, it was just insane to see the difference. Not only were people not wearing their mask, and there was, you know, flight attendants who were having to come and tell people to fix their masks. But then we got off the plane, we were going through customs, it was super, super understaffed. Everybody was waiting, and people were missing their flights. They actually opened up like an employee exit and had people coming from, I don't know, if you've ever traveled internationally, normally you land and you go through customs and then you pick up your bag and then you go through like a bag inspection line and then you recheck your bag. And there was like one person working this rechecking bag process, there was like, I don't know, like 500 people, at least, that were all bombardindg at the same time. And they literally opened up like this back hallway entrance way and were funneling people out into the main lobby, to then recheck in through normal security lines, which is a huge problem when you have the like the red tax free type stuff. But it was just such a cluster, this craziness. And then you re-check in and I'm sitting there, and I had maybe 10 or 15 minutes left to my connecting flight at that point. And there was just trash everywhere, disposable masks laying on the ground, trash laying on the ground, it's just, I was just sitting there, and I was just like, secretly, like ashamed that, that we were just acting like this as individuals. 

And it doesn't matter what you believe. And it doesn't matter where you stand on science, it doesn't matter if you believe in masking or don't believe in masking, it doesn't matter, any of your personal beliefs. When you choose to frequent a business or when you choose to, to support an organization, you also are following their policies. If you don't like their policies, that's fine, don't go there. If you don't like the servers that they have, or any of the rules, then you have a million other places that you can go to that you can support and that they can align with you. And it's just super interesting, this whole dynamic, and I think traveling internationally during COVID has really kind of made me more aware of that. And really looking at kind of the differences. 

I would also say and I don't want to be critical of my fellow Americans here, but I would say we're all just genuinely spoiled and don't realize how spoiled we are. So in the US, we have vaccines available everywhere. I'm not going to get into like a whole debate about vaccination or not vaccination and everyone has their unbelief. But the fact that we have it available pretty much in every street corner now, every CVS, every Walgreens, every Target, doctors, hospitals, urgent cares. And not only do we have availability, but it's also free. There are other countries where 1000s and 10s, and hundreds of 1000s of people are dying, and they don't even have access to it. And so I think it's worth taking a moment to say, even if you chose not to get vaccinated, if you have medical or religious or belief issues, and you chose not to, we should still like take a second to just appreciate the fact that we even have that option. Because I think that that's traveling internationally, I'm like, wow, like, they desperately want it, and they don't have access to it. And so yeah, I was feeling a certain type of way about that. 

All right. This was not supposed to be a podcast on vaccination and COVID. But when I reflect back on my summer, over the last three months, that was a salient memory. It really, really stood out to me when I landed in Costa Rica, and when I landed here, and it's kind of stuck with me. And so I wanted to share that to all my lovely listeners here. 

I am a little nervous, because in a couple days, I will actually be interviewing for a board position for PCMA. If you know me, if you've listened to me before, PCMA is one of the meeting and event industry's largest associations, there's kind of PCMA and MPI, I'm a huge, I love all the organizations PCMA, MPI, IAEE, I love them all. But PCMA holds a very special place in my heart, they have just such stellar education and a focus on education. And I have been a student member, a planner member and a faculty member in PCMA, for so many years. Over, I think over a decade now. And oh my gosh, I'm old. Y’all just have to love when you like have those moments where you're like, Wow, I've been driving for that long. Oh. And I was nominated by a supplier in Europe. And I was nominated by some planners and suppliers in the US, and by some other faculty to serve on the Board of Directors at the global level. And I have my interview in a couple days. And I'm like, super nervous. So by the time you hear this, when it's released in two weeks, I'll have already had that interview. So you'll probably hear about the results of that in a future podcast, though I don't think I'll actually hear if I was chosen as board member until the end of September, beginning of October. But cross your fingers, say a little prayer, send me your good Juju, cuz that's really, really exciting. 

One other thing that we have coming up, and then I will kind of cast the way for future episodes. So I have a new intern this year. And I'm also working with a lovely grad student, Lillian, and Lillian is going to be taking over the editing for the podcast. And so if you followed the podcast for any amount of time, you know that students actually edit the podcast, and it's a different student each semester, and I give them free creativity. And yes, I know, this is my brand. And I know, you know, Dr. K, Dr. K events, Extraordinary Events. This is kind of my brand, but I'm all about education. And the best way to give education to students is this hand- on experience, where they can try things and have some structured failure, and it's okay. And so I'm super excited, she'll be the third student, third, fourth, third, I can't remember three or four students now who have kind of taken the podcast and kind of done their own thing. So if you are brand new to the podcast, pretty much every, I think 15 or 20 episodes, podcast gets kind of a facelift because a new student comes in so you could see new images, you could see new marketing, you could see new taglines, I'm really kind of working with Lillian to see what her vision is. 

One thing that my previous intern Addison had been really passionate about was getting me on TikTok. And I agreed, I know deep in my heart somewhere I need to be on TikTok. I know that it's smart. I know I researched, I've done the things I know that it's a platform that I want to be on. So I agreed, to to let her video me for a couple of episodes and I just so was not into it, like at all. I went on, pretty much like the day after she stopped working for me. I went on and deleted it. I just couldn't do it.

And a couple of weeks ago, I was like I know in my heart of hearts, that I should be doing TikToks, it's been on my mind so I'm just a really I just know that it's where the universe has sent me tons of signals lately that I should be on TikTok. The TikeyTok, and I downloaded it again a couple weeks ago, and I've been doing some intense research on the best way to, I guess look like an idiot, but be educational. I mean, clearly, that's not what I'm looking up. But I'm looking at ways to really get a message across in a fun and short way with some stories, but then also some key points. So with that being said, you can follow me at I believe it's Dr Kevents on the TikTok, and I promise you, I will make an idiot of myself at some point, I don't have any videos posted. But that will change. Probably a couple of weeks after you listen to this. I've got some good vision and some good thoughts in this. And Lillian is just going to elevate that video editing game in a big way. 

So that's kind of how my summer’s been. Lots of travel, lots of kind of seeing, seeing everybody seeing all the things, lots of conferences. I'll kind of follow up on some of those conferences here in the next few episodes. But if you haven't, make sure that you rate the podcast, five stars, leave a comment. If you take a screenshot of your comment and you send it to our email, theeventsinitiative@gmail.com then I will send you a personalized message to thank you. Those mean so much as it's so incredible to see all of the people all over the world who have listened into the podcast. It's just so awesome. I never take your time for granted. I thank you, every single one of you each and everyone for taking the time to make the time. Time is a valuable resource and I don't take this responsibility lightly. With that, I will talk to you all next week. Bye.