Out & Equal Workplace Summit
On Wednesday, September 13, myself and several co-workers converged on Chicago, IL for the 2006 Out & Equal Workplace Summit. Almost 200 companies sent a combination of over 1700 GLBT employees there in order to share best practices about workplace policies for inclusiveness, learn about trainings and other information about laws etc concerning GLBTs, and in order to network and meet people from all over the world. The summit itself was the 14th - 16th, but the day before (13-SEPT) GE had its own GE GLBT Alliance national meeting.
Just trying to get there was half the fun...
The trip just to get out to Chicago from Atlanta was half the fun of the trip. Yes, I am being sarcastic... :-) My comrades from Atlanta and I were scheduled to be on a Delta flight to the Midway (MDW) airport in Chicago leaving at 8a. Now having been the one that setup these plans, I figured that we'd have plenty of time to get to our GE meeting (which started at noon) since the flight was supposed to land by 9a CST. After being detained in the terminal for over an hour after our scheduled take off time for "maintenance", we boarded the plane. We sat on board for probably 20-30 more minutes before the crew asked us then to disembark since the flight had been canceled due to how long it was delayed. I had never heard of such a mess. They told us that we had all been rescheduled for another flight and had to go to a different terminal in order to find out the details about it. Already the morning was off to an interesting start!
"What time are we supposed to leave now!?!"
After walking from one terminal in the not-so-small ATL airport to another one, my colleagues and I found out that they had rescheduled everyone on our flight to the 2p EST flight. 2PM!?!? Our meeting was supposed to start with lunch at 12p CST and then sessions at 1p CST. If we left at 2p EST we wouldn't get there until 3p CST at the earliest and then after getting our bags and a taxi to the GE office where our sessions were, we'd practically miss the whole day! This was obviously unacceptable, so my friend Peter got on the phone with a Delta representative and proceeded to give her whats for.
Aaahhh, a savior in O'Hare...
A couple minutes into the conversation we all looked at each other and said, "O'Hare!" (ORD) as if it was some group epiphany or something. He asked the lady on the phone if there were any earlier flights into O'Hare and if we could get onto one of those. Luckily for us there was one leaving ATL at 11a EST. This would get us there in time to get to the sessions even if we'd miss the lunch portion of the afternoon. She confirmed us on the new flight and we got new tickets printed at the desk. Luckily the new gate was in the same terminal, not too far from where we were located already, so it was a quick walk down to it.
We approached the gate desk and talked to the attendant to find out where our seats were and if we needed any new documents to get on board. She looked at us square in the face and said, "I don't know why they confirmed you on this flight. I ain't got no seats!" Our jaws dropped to the floor. She was very unhelpful to us and eventually just told us to go away and they would call us when they were ready. Overwhelmed with confidence, we moved off to stand and wait for boarding hoping we would get on this flight. Sure enough, as people were starting to board, our names showed up on the "Cleared List" and we were able to get our seats.
"Sorry ladies and gentlemen, this is the flight deck and..."
Now on board plane #2 my colleagues and I (one of which I was sitting next to) got comfortable with our reading material for the 2 hour trip to ORD. Everyone boarded fairly quickly and after not too long the doors were closed and we were pushing off. I should probably note at this point that this flight, surprisingly, was also delayed by about an hour. We were now accepting the fact that we would definitely be at least an hour late before we got to our meeting. Our pilot maneuvered the plane to the runway and put us 11th in line for takeoff. We slowly but surely crawled up to the runway. When it was our turn, the engines flared up, we started to go faster and faster and THEN!...nothing... We started to slow down and move back to the takeoff line. The captain came over the PA system and announced, "Sorry ladies and gentlemen, this is the flight deck, we had to clear the runway due to an incoming plane with a medical emergency on board. The air traffic controllers are not letting us go back to the front of the line and we are now 15th for takeoff." There was a general rumble amongst the passengers and when I expressed my dismay to my comrade sitting next to me, he simply responded by saying, "It's hard to get upset about these things when you're reading a book about death." He flashed the cover of the book he was reading, "How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter" (Nuland, 1995). I was compelled to just laugh, relax, and go back to taking a nap...
We finally arrived in Chicago at ~2p CST. As you can probably imagine our luggage did not arrive with us. We figured it was a blessing in disguise since that meant the airline would deliver them straight to our hotel and we didn't have to drag them all around the city in order to get to the GE office. After grabbing a quick sandwich in the airport we hopped into a taxi and were there before we knew it. We arrived right as a break in the session was ending and slipped in unnoticed to the back of the room.
The sessions were wonderful! I learned a lot about GE's growth traits and how the GE GLBT Alliance maps to them. I also got more information about best practices around setting up a new chapter of the Alliance. In no time we were heading to the hotel (the Hyatt Regency Chicago) for a quick costume change and dinner.
After a great dinner at which I met a couple other GE employees (some of which were either living in Atlanta already or moving there shortly!), we went back to the hotel for some "networking" drinks and off to bed to get ready for the exciting Summit. The first plenary speaker the next morning was George Takei, the former Lieutenant Sulu from Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" (the original series). He said that Mr. Roddenberry's goal for the "Star Trek" series was to show "infinite diversity in infinite combinations." This was the most memorable quote of the whole weekend for me...and not just because I'm a Trekkie.
I went to several very interesting and informative sessions the rest of the weekend there. My friends and colleagues also helped show me around Chicago, especially the infamous "Boystown" on the North Side of the city. It is definitely a city that I will go back to again on my own! There was a great, formal, dinner gala on Fri night. My new friend Robert and I decided to partake in 40 oz martinis in the hotel bar afterwards. Let's just say they made for an interesting night...and slightly difficult next morning :-)
Home again home again...but not for long!
On Sunday we took off back to Atlanta without any difficulties. Of course there weren't any...it's not like we were trying to make a meeting or be on schedule for anything :-) Darn Murphy and that law! Not too long later it would be time to fly again; this time back to LA to visit Logan, Cathy, and Tim...but that's another story (which I can't write yet since it hasn't happened as of this writing... :-).
Cheers,
M@
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