What a day!

Friday was one hell of a day. Let me backtrack... about a week before Winter break, we received a phone call from the Governor's Office. They wanted San Jacinto College to host a governor's small business forum. On Jan. 26. Did I mention this was about a week before Winter break, which started on Dec. 23? Right...

After my heart stopped for a short while, I went into event mode. Lucky for me, by the time Winter break actually came around, a date of Feb. 17 had been agreed upon for the event. Whew! That bought me a few extra weeks! The Governor's Business Forum is an opportunity for small business owners and entrepreneurs to get information from the Texas Workforce Commission on how to grow or start their small business. It's intended to be a one day event with workshops and information sessions related to small business. Great. Easy enough. Not a problem.

And then came the twist... this particular Governor's Business Forum would also have a component geared toward keeping jobs and money here in Houston, especially in the aerospace industry. The event would be held at NASA, CEOs (or C-levels) from a variety of different backgrounds (health, space, education, etc.) would be invited, and the Texas Secretary of State would offer the keynote. It was also going to be opened up to displaced workers in the area, particularly those who may have worked in the aerospace industry. The Secretary of State spoke about initiatives and funding that would be available to help keep work in Houston, and the C-levels got a tour of NASA.

OK... that was definitely a twist. It was like planning two events in one. Awesome.

Fast forward two months to yesterday. Event day. Actually, let's fast forward to Thursday, the day before the event. I was unusually calm, and I even posted on Facebook that I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that I was so calm. So Friday came around, and everything went so smooth. The event was great. We had about 275 people there (we planned for 300). It all went off without a hitch!

And I couldn't have done it without this crew:

My team really stepped up on Friday and took care of things - from registration, to room set up, to greeting people, to tearing down - they were amazing! My feet hurt like hell by the time I got home,and I was really really tired, but it was a great day. If you want to see pictures (humor me), click here.