I’ve mentioned my boss before on the blog, but I try to limit references (as per his request). But I had to share the story of something that happened recently.
We’d previously arranged to attend a motivational seminar featuring several famous guest speakers and were arriving separately. The seating areas all had classy names – Professional, Executive, VIP, Premiere, and so on (my boss and I were both in the Premiere section). He called to tell me that he would be running an hour late, so when I got there and found out that the Premiere section was full, things did not look good.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get to go to the backstage VIP area,” one of the workers said. ”You’ll still be able to see it.”
I was then ushered through a bunch of back hallways in the US Airways Center by a security guard, past lots of “RESTRICTED” and “EMPLOYEES ONLY” signs, to wind up on the Phoenix Suns’ practice court. Apparently, “Backstage VIP” really means “watch the speakers on projection screens in another room.” I grabbed a seat and placed my jacket on one of the chairs next to me so my boss would have a reserved spot. After sitting through speeches by Kurt Warner and Rudy Giuliani, I got a text from my boss.
“Having trouble getting in.” The first one said.
“Tell them you have a reserved spot in the VIP section.” I replied.
“OK, got it. See you in a few.” He answered.
A break came and went, and after several rounds of furious texting and phone call confusion (lousy signals in the arena given the volume of other phones that were out), I couldn’t find him in the backstage VIP area.
“Why can’t I find you? I walked in front of the stage.” I sent him. Laura Bush had just taken the stage.
“I didn’t see you. But I’m 10 feet away from Laura Bush. Got you a seat here.” He sent back.
That’s right – he had talked his way into getting a real VIP seat in the main room, and had somehow picked up a seat for me too. So for the rest of the day, he and I sat front-row for speakers like Steve Forbes and Colin Powell.
As I found out later, by the time my boss had arrived at the arena, they were shuttling late-comers to a different location (also to watch projected speeches). Having known that I had saved him a seat, he was able to talk his way through to attending the live event. And by being of firm enough convictions that he convinced the people who worked there that he belonged right by the stage, he got in.
Tickets for that seating area could cost as much as $150.
My boss and I had paid $5 each for our seats.
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