100^th annual convention of Rotary International

'All 4 Shows' were recently appointed sole supplier to the 100th Annual Convention of Rotary International.

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The Spirit of Rotary or The Show Must Go On:

During the build-up and behind the scenes of any congress lies a mountain of work to not only get it right but make it look effortless.

In a perfect world we would have many months, a year or 2 even, to work on it; sadly, we did not have such luxuries for the National Exhibition Centre's 100th Congress. So, just a few short weeks prior to, we were requested to supply 70 local-based cashiers/registration personnel, whose language skills should include Japanese, Chinese, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish - and Korean. Now we like a challenge as much as the next Rotarian but have any of you born-and-bred Brummies ever tried to locate English/Korean speaking cashiers?

Two weeks before the opening day my daughter was hospitalised. But the show must go on and The Spirit of Rotary set in: instead of booking myself in to see Kathryn Jenkins, go the Warwick Castle etc, once-in-a-lifetime- chances, were forgotten. Stephanie was in the very best hands, Solihull Hospital were looking after her wonderfully well, and I kept on booking, briefing, interviewing , sometimes late at night (thank Heavens for computers - and I never ever thought I would say that), which enabled me to do so without waking anyone at all hours

Came the 17th, our first day, I was anxiously peering through the windows of Hall 1, where all my staff should be behind the huge reception desks. I had not panicked or faltered until then, but seeing the desk empty gave me a fleeting shock; thankfully they had all been directed to another meeting room and the only one that was (5 minutes) late - was me! All were all there present and correct, suited and booted and accessorised by yours truly in black/white and Rotary blue, ready to be briefed by the RI magnificent, unflappable and immensely helpful managers. They seemed so pleased that we had gone the "extra mile", giving them each sheets on which language was spoken by whom and where, bringing them copies of the Birmingham Post each day and immediate replacements for one who had a 'heart flutter', another whose husband had a brain haemorrhage, even one who went into early labour - although her replacement was considerably slimmer

We worked hard, made new friends, even my daughter was well enough to visit the event for an hour; the most wonderful 'thanks' we received were from May Li and Koko Dobbs, asking if they could take the entire team to Montreal. Praise indeed. And a worrying, exciting, special event that I for one, will never forget, even though we have been Sole Suppliers to many major events, this is the most memorable and enjoyable by far. Thank you RI.

Rotarian Jo Thomson