On Conferences

So this morning at 8:47 a.m., Mr. Russell found out that a booth became available at a conference he’s attending next week. So he snagged it. He had no materials, no idea how to set up the booth and no idea if The Company would actually let him have the $4K booth.

The Company approved the booth, but negotiated for a $3K price. And with the two attendee discounts, the booth ended up being only $1000 – a big discount off of $4K. Mr. Russell scraped together about 50 brochures and 50 leaflets, then found 500 tchotkes up at HQ that he’s having shipped directly to the conference.

But it was the shipment of the materials and the booth that concerns this post. You see, at my old job I was privy to conferences, and many times over I know exactly what goes on with shipping, specifically with FedEx. So here is the conversation from earlier today:

Mr Russell: Hey Jane, can you find out from FedEx if we can have these arrive tomorrow?
Jaynee: Yes, we just mark the slips for “Saturday Delivery”.
MrR: When do they pick up this stuff?
J: Whenever we want. 7 p.m. is probably the latest, and 9 p.m. for dropoff.
MrR: If they pick it up now, do we get some sort of discount for having an early pickup?
J: No, FedEx deals strictly on weight. Whether they pick it up at 11 a.m. or 7 p.m. it still goes on the same plane tonight for delivery tomorrow morning.
MrR: Can you just call and check?
J: (in my head): Um. No.

Thankfully, all stuff is packed up and ready to go. He finally got it in his head that I know what I’m talking about with regard to FedEx. I also made sure I gave him clear instructions on how to ship everything back when he finishes with everything, and even provided him with pre-filled out labels. We’ll see how well he listened come next Friday. If nothing comes back, we know he messed up. *lol*