Since there’s maintenance in FFXIV and I’m somewhat recovered, I can finally blog about my first work business trip. I doubt I’ll finish it within a day but here goes!
Day 1 – Thursday July 8th
This was all last minute planning, like I found out I was going to CPAC the week before along with other colleagues. Some of even found out a couple of days before the event 😆 Regardless it was all good. Thursday morning I got up early to do my toe nails and went to the airport around 8AM. It’s so nice to fly in a local airport other than LAX. Much closer, no traffic, and no cranky people 😌 The sunny weather was a bonus!
It was a short 30-minute flight to our first stop over in Vegas, Nevada.
However when we landed… oh boy 🥵 Not only could I feel the heat in the plane but in the airport too. From our gate we could see Mandalay Bay, Luxor and MGM Grand.
Back in the plane, I didn’t realize how high up we are in the air. I’m so used to seeing the ocean since I’ve most been flying across the Pacific ocean. I love how the scenery changes, from the dry canyons, to greener pasture and finally to the city of Dallas 😃
The airport was kind of small but just perfect for me! Not that crowded as I expected even though CPAC is just around the corner.
The Hilton Anatole Hotel was pretty close to the airport, which is also where CPAC is being hosted. We arrived late afternoon around 5pm and the hotel was kind of fancy with all the Asian art pieces. It’s big and looks more like a museum than anything 😯
Once the check-in was all sorted out, I met up with my colleagues and got our gear. I really love the company hat 🥰
It’s a bit of a walk to our rooms but thankfully all the action will be in one structure so we don’t have to drive anywhere and deal with traffic. There are plenty of places to hang out too. Aside from the displayed artwork, there’s a nice patio to lounge with a large hanging sculpture at the top. This place is really funky 😃
We all settled in our rooms and rested for a bit. Aaaaaah, nothing beats the feeling of having a nice hotel room all to myself ☺️ Once I got in, I hung my clothes, popped my laptop to check my emails and help out at customer support, then set my alarm and took a nap.
A couple of hours later, we all met up for dinner. The weird thing about this hotel is there’s only one restaurant in it and they were no longer seating guests at 8PM. So we headed out to the nearest restaurant called Town Hearth… which turned out really fancy 😲 Shoot, it even has a billboard for it! The inside was beautiful ❤️ Filled with chandeliers, random submarine tank with live fishes, motorcycles displayed by the bar and a car by the kitchen. It was really something!
As for the food, I got myself some juicy ❤️ Delmonico ❤️ with Lemon Drop.
By the end of the night, I was one happy person 😊
Day 2 – Friday July 9th
Time to register and set up our booth! As we were heading to the exhibition hall, I saw the CPAC banner with our company logo in it. I didn’t even know we were sponsoring the event 😅 Since our company is a sponsor, we were able to go to the front of the line and get our badge. Sweet!
We apparently have 2 booths to set up. First booth is at the media row where we can have interviews. Here’s the before and after the set up.
Second booth is our regular booth. Again, the before and after 💁🏻♀️
So apparently the first day is usually a slow day because everyone is busy setting up so we headed out to pick up our marketing materials we ordered ahead of time at a local print shop. Thankfully one of my colleague has a a car so we didn’t have to rely on Uber 🙏🏻
After we picked up the prints, we had a late lunch at one of Texas’s popular chain: Whataburger 🍔 This is apparently the Texas version of In-and-Out in California so this was going to be interesting. They seem to have a lot more choices and it is slightly bigger. I should’ve ordered their most popular one but the Swiss mushroom burger always gets to me… and man its was juicy 👌🏻
When we got back, the rest of the team showed up and we took turns watching over (or goofing off 😆) on each booth. It’s so awesome to meet and hang out with them in person and not just talking to them through emails and zoom calls 🤗
Two of my colleagues even photobombed Fox News 😂🤣 They’re so hilarious!
Meanwhile the boss is busy doing his duty as the company founder: getting interviewed, engaging in the event’s activities, and building network to represent the company. I think for the most part he’s the only one working… JK! We were all working our butts off but having fun at the same time 😄
Afterwards we got invited to a Project Veritas after party but we were too tired to attend. However, my boss and his wife attended which was great 👍🏻 The funniest part was when my boss sent the invitation through text, one of my colleagues thought it was from another colleague and made a blunt response saying he was tired without realizing it was group text. We were cracking up so bad when he told us about it later on 🤣 I thought he was super ballsy!
For some of us we just hung out outside and chatted the night away with some tequilas and kamikazes. I was worried at first because I don’t like the smell of cigarettes but my colleague’s cigar wasn’t bad at all. It was a tiring day but the long chats was very unwinding 😊 We slept about 1:30AM.
Day 3 & 4 – Saturday July 10th to Sunday July 11th
The next two days are apparently the busiest days (Saturday the most) so we got up early and got some breakfast. Can never go wrong with eggs benedict ❤️
Next to our media booth was a crowd and I saw a familiar face: ⭐️ Caitlyn Jenner ⭐️
Meanwhile on our media booth, since we have a couple of interviewers and content creators there was a bit of a conflict on who gets to occupy the booth. I say for every problem there’s always a solution so I helped out by becoming the camera man 💪🏻 Because of this we became mobile and were able to get more interviews on the fly instead of waiting for guests to come up to our booth. Plus it gets me out of booth duty 👹 We got a lot of powerful interviews from very inspiring people 🤩 Most of them are regular working-class people who are tired of virtue-signaling politicians not fixing problems. We even interviewed a kid who asked questions no one would ask, and beautiful ladies who are not only confident in being patriotically fashionable but also has strong and smart opinions. They’re all very passionate and most of all, they love America and are grateful for the opportunities it has to offer. Huge respect 🙌🏻
While we were doing interviews, my boss continued expanding our network by showing powerful influencers how our platform can help them connect with people. I’m so sad I didn’t get to see Allen West and Ben Carson 😢 but I did get to see Vernon Jones who’s a pretty cool guy 😃
On Saturday night we hosted our Mixer. I’m not really one who like to mingle and much prefer to be behind the scenes. The beginning is always awkward since our room was so empty but the very first person who showed up was a very prominent figure, Matt Gaetz 😳 He was very much interested in our platform and looked forward to seeing how he can help us ☺️
He stuck around for a while until other people showed up and man, we had a lot of guests. Yeah, I was a bit intimidated and tried to blend in with the wall 😅 However I talked to a couple of people who I can relate to. Mostly managers who juggle multiple positions and handles last minute projects. We got a couple of good laughs from each other’s stories of our struggles 😆
Afterwards we had our nightly chats but instead of being outdoors we had our drinks at the hotel bar where we overlook the hanging sculpture. It glows at night, making it mesmerizing 😯 We also had a bit of adventure avoiding some drunks but once we were in the safe zone, we went back to our story time. Man I love this group 🤗
Sunday was the last day of CPAC and I had to cover booth duty for a bit. Right across our booth was none other than Mike Lindell who surprisingly showed up. I took a super quick selfie with him before he went on his interview. I could tell he’s so tired but still has a great attitude towards people.
And finally the main event. My boss and colleagues stayed behind to watch over the booth and they insisted I head there early because seats go out fast. Since I was the only one going, it wasn’t hard for me to find one and they weren’t joking about the place filling up. I’m not much into crowds but the people there were really friendly. Everyone was excited to see Trump and when he showed up, the energy in there is AMAZING 😲😲😲 Trump really knows how to fire up people.
After the main event, when I got out about 90% of the booths in the exhibition hall were already taken down. Yay less work for me! 🥳🎉
On our last night in Texas, we ate at the Town Hearth again and shared our insights of the event. We shared stories about the people we got to know and interviewed, the company’s history and growth, our experiences throughout the year, and what we’ve gained from CPAC. Instead of getting the Delmonico, which I couldn’t finish last time and ate it cold the following morning (still good), I ordered filet mignon and the Evlis dessert. Oooh that was so good 🤤
Following morning we were all packed and flew back to California. Some already flew back to their home state the day before to avoid the crowd. I’m still not used to seeing how high up in the air we flew. At one point I even saw a plane far below us.
Since I didn’t have a weekend to rest, my boss told me to take the day off. I was pretty grateful and got myself some nice warm ramen to freshen up. It’s been a while and it hit the stomach just right ☺️
That was really fun and my biggest take-away from this experience was meeting everyone in person. To me that’s what really made it memorable. Second would be the people I met and even just listening to their stories when they’re being interviewed. Despite the crazy workload, I’ve made some amazing friends 😊 They even gave me a shout out (42:35) on one of their shows. They’re so sweet and I look forward to working with them!
And that concludes my business trip in Dallas, Texas 🤗
Alita in Eorzealand 