Monday Conference Report
Monday of Arts and Crafts week is our last day in the office, as Alex, Jan and I are packing up dozens of cardboard boxes and vinyl tubs filled with name badges, plastic holders, books, catalogs, magazines, auction items, donations for drawings, posters, calendars, envelopes, workshop materials, handouts and tote bags.
For Alex, this will be her seventh and final Arts and Crafts Conference in which she is managing our Registration Desk and designing the Conference Catalog. Three years ago Alex started Lucky Penny Creative, her own special events business, and the time has come for her to spread her wings and devote all of her time and energy to it.
For Jan Wolff, this will be her first Arts and Crafts Conference. She joined us last month and has been absorbing all Alex and I can teach her about Arts and Crafts and the Arts and Crafts Conference. She was the associate director of admissions at Warren Wilson College for more than twenty years, so she is more than capable of handing conference registration and related responsibilities here in my office.
And she is already making subtle suggestions of ways I could gradually join the 21st century rather than spawning a new breed of technology-challenged dinosaurs called Brucosaurus. (And exactly when did my fax machine become obsolete?)
So, today we are taping and labeling boxes in preparation for moving our office to the Grove Park Inn, where it will actually become two offices: Alex and Jan will have their office in the Sammons Wing Registration Desk, while I will have mine at the opposite end of the hotel in the Vanderbilt Wing Registration Desk. They will handle check-in for everyone, while I will be supervising pipe-and-drape set up for the shows, moving in glass showcases, and directing exhibitor booth set ups. We’ll have about twelve assistants, most of whom take time from their regular jobs to come back to the Arts and Crafts Conference to help us with registration, tickets, book sales, speaker rehearsals, walking tours, the silent auction, and everything else we do to make this weekend flow smoothly for everyone.
And since the gods certainly favor Arts and Crafts, my third wish should be granted: a mild spring weekend with a few brave daffodils reaching for the sun.
Until tomorrow,
It’s never too late to make the right decision.
Bruce
