As you may have been reading from our previous blogs, Jill and I attended LAUNCH festival 2014. And although conferences are incredibly resourceful opportunities, they can be overwhelming at times. In that sense, having a little humor is key to helping you get through the long days and uncomfortable situations that are bound to occur. That being said, what follows are our top three funny stories experienced whilst we were in San Francisco for the LAUNCH festival.
- “It’s okay, we blend right in,†Jill said as we unknowingly walked through the Tenderloin. If you’re not familiar with San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, it’s not where you go to buy the best steaks in town and it’s certainly not the best place to take a casual sightseeing stroll. It’s a rough part of town, to say the least. I was wearing a bright green shirt with a purple scarf, hauling my purple leather bag, and had my hair down. We passed people on the ground; playing dominoes at a table on the sidewalk; a drug deal; and countless homeless people ranting and screaming. No wonder Google maps told us to walk about 10 extra blocks around the area.
- “H*nky, you should move on!†some random guy called out to me as I was walking (without Jill) to visit Wendy Lea at Get Satisfaction.com. In an effort to make me fully understand how upsetting my whiteness was to him, and in case I did not hear him the first time, he screamed at me for as long as it took the red light to change. I am quite sure he called me a H*nky†about a dozen times. I could only see him in my peripheral vision and was trying to figure out if I could run into traffic to get away.
- “Where are you George?!†Jill screamed into her phone as she dragged two suitcases behind her, frantically scanning Market Street for our Uber car (driven by George). We had been standing in the torrential downpour of rain for the last 10 minutes waiting for him after the BART closed due to a serious police incident. We were still soaked when we went through security at the airport. And to top it off, my wet jeans set off the security alarms!
Regardless of these “memorable†interactions, we had VIP passes for the event, and attended an awesome Female Founder dinner on the first night, followed by the Yammer Founder cocktail the next evening. I must say, our favorite fellow sponsor was MicroVentures; their guys made us feel very welcome at the Yammer event where there were about 200 men and about 20 women!
Stay tuned for Part II: Lessons Learned.
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