IAAPA Part II

The morning after the awful hotel experience we had to pick up the rest of the team. First, Steve and Dave had to attend meeting at the conference while Greg and I searched for a new hotel. We dropped Steve and Dave at the conference and went on with our journey. Finding a decent hotel in Orlando during an international conference at a decent price is impossible. We visited at least six hotels in different parts of the city. Every hotel was not in the best of conditions. We were looking at places like  Hampton Inn, decent place. The other problem was being able to accommodate for 30 individuals! Finally an hour before we had to pick up the team we settled on a Courtyard Hotel. Dave also swore us to secrecy that we never share the awful condition of the previous hotel.

After finding a place to stay, which was stressful, we had to now find a place to eat lunch! Luckily the hotel suggested a sit down pizzeria down the road. I almost forgot! We also had to reserve meeting space at the current hotel for the team building activities! We were lucky that the hotel was able to meet our every last minute demand!

As we returned to the hotel we were scheduled to meet for the team exercises. At the first team exercise I got to meet everyone that was part of the Hawaiian Falls family. It was also their opportunity to meet each other as there are five waterparks in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and they rarely get to intermingle. At that point I did not feel so alone and was more on an even playing field.

That night I was placed on one of the teams and was sent out on the town for a mission. We had to travel to Universal Studios and observe the theming taking place and how we could incorporate similar concepts at home. Our team also got to have dinner together and gave us more of an opportunity to bond.

It was great to meet the people that we were serving. Greg and I worked day in and day out changing the aspects of the organization that they worked with. It was finally nice to put a face on who we worked for.