Growing Up: My First Business Trip

With the Christmas season upon us and the new year approaching it is a time to reflect on the events that have happened in my life and share them. Well, at least the events that have happened since the last post.

Black Friday was eventful, and with the addition of Black Monday for Internet sellers my wallet is much lighter than before. But neither event compared to the momentous occasion that occurred the following weekend - my first business trip.

It was one of those moments as I walked into the Salt Lake airport in a suit, dragging a suitcase and display case behind me that I realized I had grown up. Well, actually the thought originally sprang into my mind during lunch a few hours earlier. While connecting with an old english professor over some Gyros, we were discussing our current life situations and he was lamenting about the his recent 30th birthday. I decided that feeling old is relative.

I spent the first couple days of December in Phoenix at conference for the Council of State Governments. Our web application, www.utahclicks.org, was being recognized as one of the top innovations for state government in 2006. There were eight other innovations winners receiving recognition at the conference, our project represented the western region of the United States.

My job was to set up a booth and try to sell our system to other states. Our goal is to get another sale or two so that we can have enough capital to roll out of the university and operate as a private company. Only time will tell if that will be successful, but our presence at the conference in Phoenix was a great place to find leads.

I met lots of interesting people and found a few solid leads. Ironically, the table right next to mine in the exhibit area was an innovations winner from Illinois. Their innovation was drudging Peoria Lake (yes, the same mass of murky water 15 minutes from my house) and taking the sediment to brown areas in Chicago and using it for top soil.

The conference could not have come at a more awkward time for our team. We were just finishing up coding on a major software update. After crunching for most of this year, our deadline landed right in the middle of the conference. I didn't mind taking my fingers off the keyboard for a few days, but it also didn't mean any kind of a rest when I got back.

Now that the update and conference are over - with our Lead Developer taking the rest of the year off - it's been nice to slow down.