WCIT 2008

Day 0

If anything going to work on Sundays can be quite disruptive to the hibernation schedule but it's not too bad at least if it doesn't happen every single weekend.

It was a day of purely loading and display as the things had already been packed for transport to the KL Convention Centre for this major event of global proportions. Was home by 4:30 pm amidst Agnes' messages if the dinner was going to happen. To be honest I was way too tired from the thing as well as the lack of sleep that it would be a mistake to not stay back and rest up to prepare for the next three days.


Day 1
Arrived 'really early' around 8:30 am for the thing as every got ready with the thing in their red shirts sporting the company URL and logo. All things were already setup on Sunday so it was a matter of just setting stall.

For the next 7 - 8 hours everybody were on their feet, either to explain the items on show, carry goodie bags around, collecting name cards or just look pretty. In a nutshell that sounded easy but it really wasn't. By the end of the day the calf muscles and soles sore like hell.

The PM did pass by our booth after his conference upstairs, zooming by in a rush somewhere. He was at the convention hall again in the evenings as mentioned in the papers so I suppose the functions with other delegates had ended only then.

So much for that.

Oh, did I mention that Burger King lunches were awesome? Had the cheese mushroom burger with lots of Coke to wash it down with. That's approximately RM10 gone then.


Day 2

Some of us still arrived ahead of time, some 45 minutes before the halls are open for exhibitors so we ended up sitting along the corridor, reading the paper or just people watching.

It's same ol' as Day 1 but with a lot more visitors this time as the convention was open to the public, so cue half the time more talking and standing throughout the day.


Day 3

The long awaited day for everybody as we all could not wait for the exhibition to finish. The cumulation of the last two days worth of standing and walking caused myself to walk abnormally due to the inability to lift my feet without aching but for the greater good of all mankind and foot massagers, I soldiered on...

Had another Burger King for lunch with one of our most colourful sales dudes and it was an hour's worth of belly-aching laughing to help take the soreness away a little.

Our way back from lunch was somewhat slowed for the reason that more people happen to arrive on the last day as well as exhibitors themselves walking around for the 'final assault' or just plain visiting.

One such bottleneck started along the main entrance around the state department booths where tourism as well as technological blueprints were unveiled to the public. My colleagues and I were wondering what the hold up was about with so many suits in place, cameras and police. I turned out that some guy by the name of Mr Lim Guan Eng made a visit and walked right in front of us to the autograph book to sign his name...

Back at our booth the Crown Prince of Pahang walked by on his visit along with his bodyguards, looking all dignified, sporting his usual serious look as he walked down the red carpet. It seems like most of the VIPs make their way to the MSC multi-booths without stopping much at the individual companies, except for a select few, like Mr Loh Gwo-Burne for example, who came by with probably one of his aides to talk to our head product manager. Someone mentioned Datuk Ali Rustam was around walking earlier during the day.

Going home: now that is the fun part.

Our transport lorry was supposed to have arrived at 6pm when we finished with the thing. We packed up double time and were awaiting eagerly to go home only to find that the lorry had not arrived.

All right, it could be the jam, most of us thought. It was caught in the jam but for some weird reason never showed up. It was at Jalan Pinang for a good two hours if the phone calls were to be believed until it was no longer contactable, not to mention they said they weren't too sure about how to get there either.

Right.

We at least have a joker to keep us company with his barrage of funnies to keep us entertained for the next two hours, mentioning that the lorry could actually be in Komtar instead. The sour faces were a lot less sour. Alas our HR Manager decided not to wait anymore and ask for the contractor he used to work with to come with some guys.

They arrived in less than 20 minutes, some time when over 50% of the WCIT hall had already been taken down and these bunch of guys and gals in red are still sitting around waiting for something.

Finally reached home at about 9:30pm, all tired, sore and exhausted. Thanks to Jason for the ride.