a humbling experience

As many of you noticed, I've been absent the past few weeks. I was entrenched in planning a newtork meeting for a large group of environmental engineering geeks from all over the planet. I'll be the first to admit I was more than a little intimidated when given this task - me, with my humble education, lack of social grace, and limited experience, responsible for the care and well-being of people with multiple sets of letters appended to their monikers. Turns out, they were an amazing, dynamic bunch of people.

Planning for this meeting began several months ago. For those of you who have planned a wedding, imagine doing a four-day version of it, with a one-day budget you are going to have to beg off other people. Daunting, to say the least. My intrepid boss looked after chasing money down, inviting speakers, and writing the technical agenda. I was responsible for, well... almost everything else - venue, accomodations, food, entertainment, transportation... Mostly, it was an exercise in creative problem-solving. For example, one of the tasks we were given to tackle was an evening event that would somehow showcase the spirit of Edmonton. For a lot of international travellers, Edmonton means simply: The Mall. To engineers specializing in CO2 capture and storage, Edmonton is merely located in Oilberta. So how would we show them all the other wonderful things that Edmonton has to offer, like our festivals, especially when there aren't any festivals happening in, say, early November...

No man is an island. I had some amazing helpers along the way - I want to give a shout out to the people who made it happen, from the sidelines and the frontlines. Tannis, who suggested I bring the festival to the people by hiring in Paul Wallace and Randy Brososky aka the Wombats to entertain our delegates. (Get them - they're good...) Sally, who walked me through the process of hunting down and securing catering. Michelle and the driver at Greyhound. Michelle and Tracy in the office, Patti the good-humoured but broken-footed bartender, the buffalo butcher and all the rest of the tireless staff from Elizabethan Catering. Ines for keeping the fire stoked at Clerk's Quarters in Fort Edmonton. The servers, techies, and the amazing Mansour Berih at the Fantasyland Hotel. Sandra, Anne, the techies, and above all Christina at the University for helping me run a satellite office from a Mac and a cell phone. The early morning staff at the Tim Horton's on 170th street and 111th ave for making it possible to serve up true Canadiana for breakfast by having enough coffee and donuts for 36 people ready, on time, at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. Sian back at the head office in the UK for guiding me in my (many) hours of darkness. Toby for not making the Mac too icky with his dirty fingers and Brendan for loving the pastries. Gonzalo for being a familiar and friendly face (and for not laughing at me while I laid down on the waves of summerfallow to check out mouse holes.) Rick, for trusting me to actually pull this off - thank you. And last but certainly not least, Bill and the kids, for their understanding and encouragement to do it up, and do it up good, even when that meant chauffeuring me to a remote parking lot to serve coffee on a moving bus at indecent hours.

I'm drinking wine tonight, to celebrate a successful meeting, and to toast the launch of the Dirty Little Secrets Workshops tomorrow. Sleep is, after all, for sissies...