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Timing

Every now and then, I attend a conference for work. For the most part, the point of attending these conferences is that I'm supposed to learn some stuff and meet some people. The proportion of those two things changes a bit depending on the conference, but that's the basic formula. Of course, there's also some amusing anecdotes thrown in every now and then. This is a tale of that last part.

Recently, I had to attend a fairly large conference. I was warned in advance that there would be lots of people there, to the point where you had to go in with a plan lest you get sidetracked. I did my homework, so I mostly knew where to go and how to navigate the crowds. The one item that I left somewhat unsettled, however, was a meeting with a vendor we work with. We agreed on a time and a general area, but left it at that.

Me being me, I arrived early to make sure I didn't miss the guy or keep him waiting. When I got there, though, I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to pick him out. First off, I didn't know what he looked like. Secondly, and more importantly, there were far too many people to scan the crowd. I had hoped that I might find the one person who looked like he was waiting on someone else, but I had no such luck.

Luckily, I had the guy's phone number, so I sent him a quick text message. It basically said, "hey, I'm here, standing by [some landmark]. I'm wearing a light blue shirt." I threw in that last part in the hopes of simplifying things. After all, he didn't know what I looked like, either. So I figured if I gave him something to work with, it'd help speed up the search.

Want to guess who also walked up ten seconds later? Another guy in a light blue shirt. What are the odds? Right after I sent that text message, this guy strolls up. He must've been standing something like five feet from me. I don't quite know what he was up to, but it's not like I could tell him to move. And since I'd just sent that text message, I figured I'd just chance it. Maybe my contact would see me scanning for people and realize that I was the correct light blue shirted work person.

Nope. I saw a guy I didn't recognize look around a little bit, walk up to the impostor light blue shirt, and ask, "Sam?" I couldn't help but laugh at that point. It was just my luck, the sequence of events led to a case of mistaken identity with the light blue shirts.

We quickly got it sorted out and got down to our business, but it was an amusing way to kick things off that day. Funnily enough, I don't think I saw too many other light blue shirts the rest of the day (I did, however, see white shirts and blazers). You know what they say: timing is everything.
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