SD Tourism Conference Part 2

Today I woke up at a quarter to seven and had to be at the conference at 7:30.

Fun being had.

Myself and one of my classmates had to help people set up their lunch tables that would be decorated with items. It works like this: A company reserves a table at lunch and decorates it with their company gear. Someone from that company will play host to the people that sit at their table. Anyways, the different vendors or associations would come in, I would tell them to pick any table, give them early access cards for their tables host, and cross their name off a list of names. It was okay as far as work goes. And it gave me a chance to see everyone's tables. There were tables with bottles of wine, tables with books, tables with clothing, tables with spa gear... I saw a table with toys and decided I would try and get a seat there.

An hour into this, two girls from SDSU show up. They were late and kinda crabby. After telling them what we were suppose to do, one of the girls complained that "they" (meaning the SD tourism board) expect too much from us students.

"What are you talking about? You don't do anything." I said, which sounds a little aggressive now that I think about it. Oh well! After that, I went to a keynote speaker who talked about... something. I can't remember. Then it was lunchtime! I was super excited to push my way to the table of my choice but I got stuck doing work to help set up for the next speaker. By the time I was done, every table was nearly full. But there were 2 seats open at the toy table, so I got to sit there.

Turns out my table was being sponsored by the Watertown Chamber. They gave us each a puzzle, stuffed animal, chocolates, and a bag to keep our swag in. There we had lunch which was some bread with ham and cheese inside.

I scooped out the ham and just ate the bread and cheese.

While we ate, I talked with everyone at my table. Half of them were from First Gold and some were from Black Hill's and Badlands. One of them offered me an internship. There was another speaker during lunch, then they gave away prizes. I didn't win anything.

After lunch I thought I would go to one of the speakers (like yesterday, there were 3 speakers but you could only attend 2). But the conference had other plans for me. While the hotel staff cleared out plates from the tables, interns and SD tourism staff had to create the table decorations for tonights gala. I had to unwrap and take apart these glitter coated branches. My hands were covered in glitter, it was kind of annoying.

"I feel like a pixie." I mentioned as we shook glitter off our hands every now and then. "Think of a wonderful thing..."

"Shut up." One of my classmates told me. After a moment, she started singing, "You can fly, you can fly, you can fly!"

After shaking off the magic pixie dust, I got to work on flowers. There was around a billion flowers to cut the stems and place in the vases.

Not a calla lily, but it'll work.

I was cutting flowers by myself while the others either decorated the vases, cut the branches, put covers on chairs, or brought in more stuff. While I was cutting, one of the wait staff came up to me and dropped a napkin down by my hands. He was around my age I guess. "I think you dropped this." He said with a smile and walked away.

Because I'm not a complete idiot, I waited until no one was looking then opened the napkin.

Garrett you smooth son of a bitch.

I showed Maria the note and we had a good laugh. Then she asked me to point out which guy gave it to me and I HAD ALREADY FORGOTTEN WHAT THAT GUY LOOKED LIKE. So I spent the next hour avoiding anyone from the banquet staff, lest I bump into napkin boy.

After we set up the tables for the evening party, we all killed time for about another hour. We went back to the hotel at 5 to hang out before it was time to get ready for the evening gala.

I wasn't looking forward for tonights party. It was formal wear but someone mentioned how some people go all out and treat this like prom. They wear ball gowns and have their hair professionally done. I brought a dress that costs $6. I think I look like an escort in it.

Not an escort.

We left around 6:30 for the gala. Everyone looked nice and everyone I asked said I didn't look like an escort. At the event they had a table reserved for BHSU students, so I set my stuff down then went to the bar with a friend. She said she wanted to keep up with me, so we each had a shot of jack daniels then a double jack and coke. I got drunk pretty earlier on. It was a solid 7 on the scale of 1 to 10 of fun.

We had salad with poppyseed dressing. It was okay. Then out of nowhere someone from the table pulled out a bread basket and we had bread. I asked how long the bread basket was there. They said I had been drinking too much, as the bread had been there the whole time. Whatever, it popped out of nowhere.

Pictured: Salad and drink. Not pictured: Magic Houdini bread

Some guy went on stage and talked about blah blah blah. He made a joke about getting diarrhea in an airport bathroom, and for that I can appreciate him.

A kindred spirit.

Then we had dinner. It was chicken cordon bleu, veggies, and lil potatos. Pretty decent meal. It took me forever to eat though.

The goveneror got on stage and gave out some awards and it was pretty boring. Every time someone won an award, we would all give a standing ovation and it just felt excessive after the third award. And he didn't mention the university students. I thought he would have. After he was done giving out awards, the party was over. The BHSU students went up and took our picture with ol' govenor D. Then I was ready to leave!

But the conference had other plans for me. I had to help take the centerpieces, those flower vases we had created 6 hours ago. We took them off tables and then threw the flowers away and emptied the vases. Throwing the flowers away seemed like such a waste. They were quite pretty. So I grabbed a handful to take home to my mom.

Not calla lilies, but Calla's orchards.

Half the group went to the bar for the after party, and half the group went back to the hotel for the nap party. I was in the latter group. So we went back to the hotel at 10 and I typed up today's adventure at the SD Govenerors Conference on Tourism. I am glad it's over.

REFLECTION!

I wish I hadn't come. Not that this event was awful, because it was O.K. But I missed classes to come here and it just doesn't feel worth it. Doing the whole volunteer/interning was a neat experience. Getting to see the "behind the scenes" was fun. But not fun enough to be worth missing my other classes. I'm glad I got to hang out with my peers because most of them are pretty cool people. Overall, I'm glad I went! But at the same time I wish I hadn't. Oh well! We leave for Spearfish at 8:30 tomorrow, so I'm going to go to bed.

SD Tourism Conference Part 1

Last night I had a dream that I decided to bail out on this tourism conference, so I drove the three and a half hours home. This morning I woke up and realized that I hadn't gone home, but was still in Pierre. "Crap." I thought to myself. Even as I type this 12 hours later, I'm still thinking "Crap."

To backpedal a bit, I am attending the South Dakota Govenerors Conference on Tourism. It's a two and a half day thing and I went with several other BHSU students as the school is paying for us to go. I don't know what else to say about the event. This was all I really knew when I signed up.

Yesterday we left Spearfish at noon and arrived in Pierre at 4ish. The drive was a little boring and very bumpy (my fault for sitting in the back of the van). After checking in to the conference and getting our nifty badges and itinterary, we checked into the hotel. After that, we went to some rodeo building for the first of three night "parties". SInce it was at this rodeo museum type place, the theme was cowboy. I assumed everyone would wear flannel so I wore a white button down shirt and jeans. After arriving, three things became certain.
1) Everyone was wearing flannel (one point for Calla),
2) There was a bar (another point for Calla), and
3) Center stage was a mechanical bull for people to ride. Drunk idiot type people.

As I made my way to the bar, I predicted that what was on the menu for tonight was whiskeys and beer. Surprise surprise, they had pendleton, crown, bud, coors, and more to make me forget that I was at a freaking rodeo museum. Maybe this wouldn't be a bad night. Look at me making the best of things! Then I was hit with sorrow. It was a cash bar. And I operate on plastic (minus a point for Calla).

The next hour (it felt like an hour, but I think it was really 15 minutes) went by with us watching people get kicked off the mechanical bull. People would cheer and dim the lights and music whenever someone got on, and then cheer even louder when people got knocked off. It was like a solid 3 on the 1 to 10 scale of fun. It's at this point I should note that my professor, the one who organized for us all to go on this trip, absolutely positively hates SDSU. Perhaps we're rival schools. I don't know. But there is no BHSU+SDSU love in my majors department. He made it clear when he said that one of us from BHSU had to ride the mechanical bull because it would show up SDSU and make us look good. No one volunteered.

Then a couple of us bored girls got to talking and did the whole "I dare you to ride the bull", "I'll ride the bull if you ride the bull". Long story short, I rode the fucking bull. And I lasted about 15 seconds. To put that into perspective, another girl lasted 1 spin and another girl lasted 9 seconds. Should I be proud of myself? Should I be ashamed? I don't know. What I do know is that mechanical bull riding is way harder than it looks.

After a while we left and had a quick meal at Perkins since none of us has eaten since leaving campus. The school pays for our meals. After eating we went back to the hotel and I took a shower then went to bed around midnight.

Then I had the dream about coming home and was pretty stoked to be over this trip when I woke up back in my hotel bed. "Crap."

I had to wake up at 7 to get ready. I was suppose to wear BHSU attire, but instead I flaked and wore a leather jacket and jeans. We arrived at the convention at 8 and I had to be put to work. I'm an intern at the conference, which sounds like a big girl job but really it means handing out papers and setting up rooms for the speakers. There we met the SDSU students. They were dressed in suits, skirts, heels, all that jazz. Real business. And I was wearing a leather jacket and jeans.

My itinerary told me where I needed to be, what I had to do and who to talk to. Us interns set up tables and got things ready for the keynote speakers. The first speaker was about giving customers a good experience. It was about an hour long. Whenever he mentioned Disney I perked up, but for the most part all I learned was "Don't be rude to the customer."

Then I did some more work, running around, when a guy stopped me and asked if I was from one of the colleges.

"Yep, BHSU." I told him.

He made more small talk, mentioned where he worked, offered me a job. Blah blah. Then he asked, "You rode the mechanical bull last night?"

"Sure did." I said.

"Great! Did you win?"

Did I win? There was nothing to win. You either fell off or you didn't ride. "Yes, I won the whole competition." I lied to him.

"Congratulations!" Guy said. I thanked him and went back to work.

Then I went to one of the three speakers. My options were Marketing on a Miniscule Budget, Understanding Today's Female Traveler, and a Travel Writers Panel. Since I don't want to be understood, I went to the marketing one and the writers panel.

The writers panel wasn't what I expected. It was more about how to be a tourist in a small town. And the marketing one was neat.

Then it was lunchtime! I had to help set up the room which meant I was able to pick a table that was close to the food station which meant I was one of the first people of like 400 to get food. This is what I ate-

                                                                    It's chilli and a salad.

After eating we had to listen to the secretary of tourism talk about South Dakota tourism. There's not much to say. The food was good but the portions small and it got a bit boring after a while.

After that ended, there was another speaker. I sat with my school group and two people fell asleep. The speaker talked about economics and it was very interesting.

Then we went back to the hotel and took an hour break. At 7, we went back to the conference for the second of three parties. Last night was cowboy themed. Tonight was biker.

                               I joined a gang. BHSU Chapters of Hell. The Yellow Jackets Gang.


At the conference I went straight to the bar and had a jameson and ginger ale

                                                          Hello darkness my old friend.

There was a band, prizes being given away, fruit and cheese snacks, and more bars.

                                                            I've come to talk with you again

We stayed until 9 and I had three drinks. Jameson, jameson, and Jack daniels. By the end I was a little drunk and stole someone's table decoration. It was a solid 5 on the scale of 1 to 10 scale of fun. We went back to the hotel as everyone was bored and tired. My roommate went to McDonalds, but I went to bed as I have to be at the conference at seven thirty tomorrow. "Crap." I thought.