I am stealing this title from Britney Spears, as it totally fits my last two weeks. This past year has been the year of virtual meetings. Well, here is the thing about virtual meetings:
1) There are SO many distractions. Normally, if you are meeting in an office you do not have to worry about the doorbell ringing, the dog barking or the kids interrupting. Those rules just do not apply in the virtual world.
2) At an in person meeting you KNOW who is in the room. There are no hidden surprises. There are no people lurking in the background. You KNOW if you are muted or not, because you are either talking or not.
Well, after over a year of successfully navigating these issues, I have had two 'gotcha' moments in two weeks. Time for a vacation:)
As Kendall and I were laughing incessantly about it last night, she suggested I capture it permanently in the blog. For my co-workers, "You're welcome." Glad I could be your entertainment the last couple of weeks.
The first incident happened two weeks ago. I was in a meeting with the new Regional Director I just hired. Showing him how it is done, I suppose (or not!). We were meeting with the Chancellor for a large University along with her four Vice Chancellors and the Athletic Director. It was a fantastic meeting...until...Kendall decided to come in the office. To her credit, she NEVER does this. She is the best at respecting the closed door. For some reason, on this day, she just could not contain herself. I am on video when she walks in, "Mom". I hold up the little stop sign I have made for such an occasion. Nope. She says again, "Mom." I ignore her. Third time, "Mom." I stop my video and turn to her with the following glorious statement, "Unless the house is burning down, get out of my office." Yep! As I turn back to the computer, I see that I am not muted. OMG. I gracefully started my video back up and pretended nothing ever happened. Thankfully, everyone else pretended nothing happened as well, though I did see one of the Vice Chancellor's laughing to himself. Glorious! To those inquiring minds, she had nothing super important to tell me. Even she is not sure why she chose that moment to be so persistent. Good Times.
The second incident happened yesterday. It was during one of our hosted online events. Almost 400 attendees. Thankfully, I did not embarrass myself quite that broadly though. We were in the middle of a 'free time' networking session. When I decided I had done enough networking, there was only about five minutes left. I decided to join RedBuilt's breakout session. You see, I worked at RedBuilt for 13 years. They are like family to me. Unfortunately, I took that a bit too seriously. As I entered the breakout that was nearing wrap-up, I saw the number 5 in the corner. I assumed that there were only five people in the meeting, me, the two RedBuilt people and the two WoodWorks people facilitating. So, I proceed to unmute myself and carry on the absolute silliest of conversations. Yep, not professional at all. Very relaxed. Very silly. Then I hear my phone buzz. I look down and there was a text from Bill. "There are 35 people watching." WHAT?!?!? Sure enough I look at the corner of the screen and see a second number...35. OMG. I 'not so gracefully' shut off my camera and muted myself, as I sent apology texts to the 'five' people I thought were the only ones in the meeting. What did I receive in return? A lot of chiding comments. "We thought you were zoom bombing." "Hijacker:)" "Way to keep the mood light." "Great example of what not to do." "Great entertainment." and it goes on. I am glad I could be of service. However, I am pretty sure it took an hour for the natural color to return to my face! Just keeping it real!
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