(A picture driving into the downtown area - on a rare moment it wasn't raining)
After settling in to my hotel room and discovering that the bathroom was covered in weird artwork (a fat Mona Lisa?)
I walk the 2 blocks to the Convention Center to do my Conference Registration and try to meet someone nice to have dinner with (I hate eating alone - the 1 major downfall of business trips). Despite finding everything still relatively quiet since most people won't be arriving until the next day, I decide to check out the city within walking distance of my hotel. While I'm walking I notice many types of "artwork" which I was later told was part of Kansas City's "1% for art" program. Basically it started as a way to try to keep their downtown area pretty (instead of just being a bunch of ridiculously large buildings) and meant all new construction had to include 1% for art - cool idea. I liked it, despite some of it being sort of odd (though I guess UCSD prepared me for odd art)!
(The top of the Convention Center:)
Day 2
I spent all day in the Conference, going from 1 outstanding session to another. It was so empowering to be around a bunch of other incredibly intelligent, impressive women in Engineering. I had many "I am Woman, Hear Me Roar" moments throughout the week, and met all kinds of neat people.
After freezing all day (as I hadn't bothered to check the weather info. before leaving and had packed for "California Fall"), I was told it was supposed to snow the next day. So, I figured before turning into a human icicle, I should head to their local shopping area (Crown Center Plaza) with the 1 spare hour I had and buy myself a coat. It wasn't until I'd gotten down there that I realized this was indeed the Ritz Carlton of shopping malls - they even had a Halls (the Department store of the Hallmark Card Company)! My snobby "Mercedes taste" side was in heaven, my wallet was crying. Nevertheless I found many gorgeous coats (not really the worst idea ever as you can't find that kind of coat in California), and bought a beautiful full length black pea coat, and love it immensely despite it's hefty price tag.
That evening I has gotten tickets to go on a "Taste of Kansas City" tour that was touted as "the BBQ places, best pubs and jazz halls". Right on! A little nerve wraking at first as everyone was already in groups of their friends they had come with, but after the first pub that wasn't really a problem =). I wasn't particularly impressed with where we had dinner (since KC is "famous" for their BBQ), but later in the week I tried BBQ at another spot that was superb, so it seems it was just that restaurant. The jazz bars were soooo much fun though! What a neat town for going out - every where you go there is live music.
Day 3:
Wednesday was the first day I had actual reponsibilities to represent Boeing at the Conference. There was a HUGE Career Fair, where Boeing and a few of the other companies were actually doing interviews and hiring - crazy, right? Anyhow, I got to help out move people around between HR screenings and talking to them / calming them down while they went through screenings with different managers and interviews. It was neat to talk to these college girls (and a few guys oddly enough -- since it is Society of WOMEN Engineers -- though they don't discriminate) about what I do for a living and what they are interested in. It really kicked on my Boeing pride badge, and my ego loved that these people were impressed by me! Woah! In my spare breaks, I headed out to check out the other booths (there were over 500) and talk to representatives from every Engineering Grad School in the country.
Later in the afternoon, I had signed up to go to the Sprint / Nextel Plant for a tour, and I was so excited. It was about a 45 minute drive from the downtown area, and it was a beautiful campus (shame I couldn't take pictures)! While they showed us all the new and upcoming technology (GPS in the phones - with capabilities that are a bit frightening actually; motion sensors in the phones - for dice like capabilities for games; the new ruggedized laptops, etc.), but there was so much they couldn't show us it was actually a bit disappointing. I later wished I'd chosen to go on the Hallmark tour instead - esp. since I heard it was incredible - boo!
Kansas City is very odd b/c it becomes almost a ghost town at night. The nightlife isn't in the downtown area (like almost every other big city I've ever been to), but actually has moved out to the suberbs. It is so bizarre since it's pretty busy during the day. Went out on the town that night with a couple of girls I'd met on the tour, and we discoved this awesome martini bar with something like 50 different types of martinis - loads of fun!
Day 4:
This morning I had to get up really early to help out with another Boeing Event - this one was a special seminar (AKA had an extra cost in addition to the Conference Fee), and was a 4 hour Lean Event. Before you groan (I know), I must say it was soooo entertaining! We taught the concepts of Lean through hands on building of 777 jets with Legos... oh yeah, it was really fun.
That night I'd picked up tickets to go to the Kansas City Ballet. Twila Tharp was doing some of the choreography so I was a bit apprehensive, but it was to be done to Beach Boys music, which I love, so I was looking forward to it. The company was superb. Most of the work they did was a very modern spin on classical ballet, but it was really cool. Then came the Twila Tharp stuff... wtf? Imagine Beach Boys on acid meets modern dance by dancers who just happen to be wearing pointe shoes. Yeah, not my idea of ballet... but then again I'm a traditionalist when it comes to ballet.
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