Foxy's First Tradeshow

Alrightie, so this past week has been -- while crazily exhausting -- all kinds of fun. My company did its first tradeshow. I know this does not sound exciting in any way, shape, or form. But it freakin' was.

First off, I am in love with Chicago. We stayed downtown off Wabash, and the city is not only (a) incredibly clean, pretty, on the water, and jam-packed with gorgeous architecture and parks, it's (b) full of super friendly people. I went for lots of beautiful walks, admired the stainless steel jelly bean and big metal lilies, and had delicious food. I'll warn you in advance, though, I forgot my camera on all my walks and only had my phone camera at the show, so the pictures are a little less fabulous than the city itself truly was.

We arrived on Monday night. Here is my arrival giddiness:

On Tuesday morning, I got up super early to prepare for the day of setup. For some reason, I wore heels. We arrived at 8AM and by 4PM, I wished my feet had never been born. My US counterpart and I abandoned the setup team boys to get some snacks and a drink. But it was nearly done!

After a to-die-for dinner with the boss and our newest business development guy, sleep came very easily.

On Wednesday morning, we had two hours to finish up. Our tech team was madly completing some programming changes and, by some miracle, it came together.

Yes, it was thrilling.

In any case, after all kinds of chatting, too many jelly beans, and a disconcerting level of foot swelling, I am really pleased with how it all went. Thursday night, I slept better than I've probably done in the last few years, and it felt good.

Whee!