Time to meet everyone at the opening reception

Tonight I attended the opening networking dinner and met some of the people who will be sharing this great leadership opportunity with me. Just like many industry functions we started the night off with social hour and a few drinks so everyone would open up and start talking to each other. This social hour was a little different though because not too many people knew each other, as there were less than a hundred people here. Almost everyone is from a different company and not in large numbers, but the conversations flowed as we awaited to be seated for dinner.

Once the dinner room opened it was like the second shift whistle of a packing house blew as we walked through the doors and everyone crossed paths to sit with different people than we were talking to in the outside hall. The table I sat with consisted of people from Duda, Kroger, and Stemilt so from the get-go I knew we'd have quite a diverse conversation ... and we did. After the usual intro topics of "Hello I am...", "I work at...", and "Oh no, the weather's not that bad in..." we continued to talk about what we do and what we expect to attain from the next two days of workshops. We began talking about the books that were given to us written by the speakers who will be presenting in the next two days and the topics that were covered in each. Discussing the topics of company alignment, pricing, and growth through innovation is when I think the people at my table began to look at me differently. Not because I had some great input and ideas to bounce off the upcoming speakers, but because I pointed out that one of the books was written in 1994 ... which just so happened to be when I was in the 4th grade. Smirks appeared, eyes squinted, and heads titled as even those who thought they were young amongst others at the table suddenly felt just a tad older, while the rest pointed out that they have grandchildren older than me. I sort of get that reaction a lot when I attend industry functions back home in Salinas and I just point out that, "Hey, we both have actors signatures on our college diplomas. Mine is Governor Schwarzenegger and yours is Governor Reagan."

As dinner wrapped up we laughed some more and shared expectations about the upcoming days. Some people turned in early to be refreshed for tomorrow, while others like myself made a pit stop at the after hours bar for some additional conversation. The conversations carried for a while and slowly people headed back to their rooms to get a good jump start for the morning and I followed. After all, breakfast does starts at 6:30 ... and I wouldn't want to miss a PMA meal, where each item on the plate is strategically placed and you're afraid to take a bite unless you've taken a picture first.