No, I couldn't bring myself to use the obvious cheesy title, but Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and I do share the state described in the title of their most famous movie together. I am having trouble sleeping tonight, still operating on Eastern Time while I am in fact on Pacific time here in....you guessed it...Seattle WA.
This week has been a roller coaster, which does not distinguish it from its last 6-10 predecessors, but it is unique in that I have in fact touched the World Vision Canada One Life Experience. I am proud to report that it is not a myth - the strange creature that has swallowed staff and departments whole is not some figment of the imaginations of some crazed conjurors in the Events Department. No, no......
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...
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It lives.
I arrived on Sunday night, then went into the TPN shop first thing with Lina V. There, we saw the One Life Experience being built and set up, so we witnessed the ways that TPN folks were dressing and distressing the props and graphics and vignettes and curtains. We were very excited about what we saw, especially:
- The lighting system with low voltage and DMX cabling
- The smell of the thatch roof
- The initial visceral blow of seeing the thing set up in its entirety - it does take you to Africa.
- The unexpectedly authentic props
- The two awesome water pumps
- The power of the printed and distressed pictures
- The whole TPN shop with all their amazingly talented staff and their equipment and their ability to make amazing things happen on the spot sometimes.
Monday night, most of the WVC One Life stakehiolders arrived. Tuesday was not fun for me. The MP3 players that we were giving to the stakeholders including 2 VPs and 3 Directors did not work properly. Luckily, the US exhibit's iPod shuffles were present, and we made the decision to go with them for ous, too. Tuesday was, for me, mostly a downer since there were so many comments from the stakeholders about how major things could change. I really had to resist the temptation to speak up and exp[lain why certain decisions and compromises were made due to the project parameters in place since the beginning, and it was discouraging to hear that in a few moments of discussion, major operating conclusions that had caused huge technical and artistic headaches were reversed. That made me wonder if those headaches would have been taken care of if I had just found a more clear and articulate way of describing the way in which the certain project parameters hindered our work and our goals.
This is where the tension of project management with multiple stakeholders came to a breaking point. Thankfully, Chris T. reinforced his belief in us and he recognized that it would have been difficult not to be defensive in the feedback sessions.
But that was Tuesday.
Today (Wednesday), we got a lot of really good work done, not only in applying the notes and feedback from the various stakeholders, but in correcting important design elements, tweaking graphics and props, rearranging the back end of the experience, and experimenting with new ideas.
Tomorrow, we go through a technical rundown and a procedural runthrough for setup, strike, and packup.
It's been a very good, exhausting, productive, stressful, fulfilling, and history-making week.
We are changing the landscape of Social Marketing in Canada. This week will be looked back on with romantic awe one day - I really believe it.
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