How To Make Me Vomit Blood – Event and Time Management

Dear people of the world, please do not do this to me…  I know you don’t like me when I am mad. So I try my very best not to lose my patience but sometimes the things that you do is extremely ridiculous! And since I also very much into the event management industry, I think I am just gonna write these few examples of bad event and time management and extremely pissed me off.

1) “Hotel food no make me happy”

This was an event for bloggers a few months ago, in the invitation it stated that the event was starting at 5,30pm in Bukit Bintang. In order for me to reach Bukit Bintang at 5.30pm, I will leave at 4.30pm. And because I work, I had to take a few hours time off of half day leave. I, not only at these but for as long as I have remembered, is a punctual person. You say 5.30, I will be there 5.20 or 5.15…. And so I arrived, together with the others, and we waited and we waited, and they politely apologized saying the event will start soon. At 6.30 they announced that the event was actually starting at 7.30pm.  WTF! Since I was already there, might as well stay through and the event was simply a 20 minutes talk and video presentation. VOMIT BLOOD!!!

2) ” See you at the deserted parking lot with psychos and murderers..”

I was informed that the meeting will start at 8am in KL and my team agreed to meet at 7.50am because we are professionals like that. Because I didn’t want to be late as usual and I couldn’t have my team waiting for their senior like I am some kind of irresponsible person. I got out from my house at 6.40am, see how early that was?? I was afraid to be caught in the traffic, I took into account how parking spots are hard to find etc. I ended arriving at 7.30am. The parking lot was deserted. My car was the only one or two cars in the dark place. If I get out of the car now, and started to walk there was a possibility of some psycho jumping out from behind the pillar snatching my bag or worse, snatching me! So I stayed in my car till my team members arrive short while later. This was fine actually but the utmost reason for  me to vomit blood was the event actually started at 9.30am! Celaka tak? I went out at 6ish and sat in my car in fear just because your mistake in communicating the right time of the meeting??? VOMIT BLOOD!

3) “I didn’t know what my colleague wrote to you in her email…”

I was invited to a workshop and I could choose which slot I would to go to, Saturday 9 am, Sunday 9 am or 3pm. I RSVP for Saturday am. I went there, office was still close. I called, the reply I got was there was no such slot as 9am Saturday. The person who communicate with me via email was perhaps temporarily mad. I also felt like banging my head on the wall until I become mad, like that person. VOMIT BLOOD.

4) ” Ala… it is just a kid’s birthday party….”

I liked to take Miki to the birthday parties that he got invited, so that he could socialized with new people. Out of the many parties that we went too, we were the first to arrive in majority of them. If the party was at 2pm. Yes I will arrive at 2pm! But due to the Miki and Rafa terhegeh-hegeh and all that, we would probably be there 10-15min late. And yet we were still the first one. When I asked the organizer, the answer I get is ” Oh sebenarnya party pukul 3… sajalah I cakap pukul 2 bagi orang cepat sikit” Ohh boleh gitu??? So sekarang aku tercangak kat sini sebab aku sorang je profesional dan menghormati masa di kalangan semua kawan-kawan ko lah? Sebab kawan-kawan ko semua kaki lambat datang, jadi aku kena tunggu sini tengok ko set up the venue?? Kalau air dah ada boleh gak minum…aduhaii… After that, memang we declined many birthday parties sebab, hmmmmm….  rasa nak VOMIT BLOOD!

There were wayyy so many incidents like these. I was also late before, but I learned from my mistake and I am still sorry  (yes, I remember which wedding I couldn’t make it at the last minute). So please people, be it event manager or participants or invitees, please respect other people’s time… Before we send out invitation email double check the itinerary and if the programme changes, contact your invitees to inform. We are all extremely busy people these days, please appreciate those who took time off to go to your event, event if it is just  you kids’ party….