Organization

During my very first year as a young HR Manager, I had to take over some duties from the CEO's Assitant who was on sick leave. 

There was a Y2K meeting coming up that I needed to help organize. 

Remember the hype in the late 1990s? Computer systems needed to get updated in order to make sure they wouldn't crash as the new millennium began. 

Yeah, that.

There were not enough IT specialists to cope with the amount of projects. As a result, even salespeople with a technical background were dispatched to customers to handle the Y2K conversion work. 

Meaning my ex-boyfriend got to go to Curaçao, and he asked me to join him. I had taken time off to study for my upcoming exams anyway, and if studying meant, taking my books to the beach, then who was I to decline?

Photo by Skitterphoto

This post is not about this trip though. All went well. No lost bags, keys or passports. Things actually got even better. The client asked him to do some other work, which was going to take another two days. Once we had checked with our managers back home if we were allowed to stay away a bit longer, there was only one problem: there were no economy seats available on the flight back. Can you believe the customer was willing to pay the extra charge for a business ticket without batting an eye - for the both of us, of course. So this was nice.

Back home here's what was coming up:

A good dozen general managers plus their respective management team members of our international subsidiaries were invited to a conference at our headquarters in Switzerland. They came all the way from the U.S. West Coast, New Zealand, and many European countries, and they needed flight tickets, airport transportation and accommodation. 

Luckily, back then we had access to a corporate travel agency that took care of most of this. 

Once everybody had arrived, I just had to make sure the day went by smoothly: 

• Overhead projector, check
• Flip Chart and markers, check
• Notebooks and pens, check
• Bottled water with and without gas, check.

Photo by Rodeo Project Management Software on Unsplash

When I had ordered lunch for the total of about 50 participants way in advance, I had gotten a written confirmation from the caterer. They were going to bring Swiss specialties appropriate to eat in a conference room, so no cheese fondue or raclette, but I was excited..

Around 11am my boss announced a short break so people could use the restroom or make a quick phone call. 

"It'd be great if we could have lunch in about 90 minutes, right after (insert Marketing Director's name) presentation."

Sure thing.

I picked up the phone to call the caterer to let them know.

They acted all confused. What order? Conference? How many people?

Turned out even though they confirmed the correct date, they put the wrong date (a week later) into their calendar.

There was nothing they could offer at such short notice, they said.

OK, that was bad. 

My head was racing. What was I going to do?

I think if this happened today, I would have way more options. More businesses offer food deliveries, there's Uber Eat and whatnot. But back then?

Even ordering 50 pizzas seemed to be too much to ask, I tried.

I ended up getting some sandwiches and quiches from the corporate cafeteria.

I was so disappointed. I had carefully thought out this lunch, there were going to be all kinds of cheeses, dried meats and fresh breads from different mountain regions in Switzerland, along with veggie sticks and dips. 

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

Today we like to call this Charcuterie Board. It was already a thing way back then!  I had even printed out pictures of these Swiss areas to give folks from far away a better understanding.

Well, the participants didn't know that. To them it was just lunch, and they were perfectly fine with what was available. There was going to be a nice dinner at a restaurant.

And you know what? 

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who still remembers this organizational glitch after all this time.