Office 2.0 – Day One
I got up today at 7 – as I do most days – but was not to head for Emerson Street. Instead, I was going to San Francisco. Ihab, our new intern, joined me at the CalTrain station, and we chatted on the way North.
We arrived to find a very busy Ismael, and a very busy May. He instructed us to prepare the demo pods. The demo pods are for sponsors, they consist of a 24″ iMac for demoing products, and an attached 19″ dell monitor mounted on an arm to display the sponsor’s logo.
We had 53 demo pods to set up, 7 on the 4th floor of the St Regis Hotel, the rest on the 2nd floor. We started out Ihab and I, and were later joined by Eric, Theresa, and Lawrence. I spontaneously started coordinating the install effort, and as the day past and more manpower was given to us, I effectively became in charge. At the peak, 12 people were helping install and setup, and I made sure everything ran smoothly. We ran into numerous problems – too little space, wobbly support tables, lack of time – but we finished at 1:30 AM. We were 3 by then, all had gone to take some rest.
The experience was fun, and despite sore feet, a broken back, and strained muscles, I was thrilled. Installing and placing more than 50 computers is no small feat. This includes software installs, configuration, registration; power supplies, sand bags, and electrical cording; fastening and mounting an equal number of monitors; and numbering, packing, and storing all the boxes so that the iMacs can be repackaged and sold at a 20% discount.
Ihab and I got back at 2:30 AM, and had to wake up at 5:00 AM the following morning. To be continued…