It’s been said that no one goes to Las Vegas twice – for it is not the same city and they are not the same person.
That’s not the actual saying, but let’s use it to talk about 30 years of Vegas tradeshows.
Transcript
It’s been said that:
No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man
I recently got back from another trade show in Las Vegas. My first Vegas show was 1994 – thirty years ago – Networld Interop’s … Microsoft TechEd’s … VMworlds … then Dell, HPE, IBM, Veritas, Veeam … now Gartner.
Thirty years of rides from the airport to a hotel, walks the rooms through the casino to the event and back, lots of overpriced high calorie food, and four days later back to the airport.
Certainly, neither the city nor I are the same – but there is one Vegas moment that changed them all.
Every time I walk by a Starbucks on the way to the expo hall, I think of the day that I cried. I was meeting with my manager and I just broke down. I was exhausted. I was frustrated. No matter what I did, it wasn’t good enough. And I just dumped it out and was sobbing.
Then I looked up – and saw her: no sympathy – no empathy – nothing .
That’s when I realized that my manager … was more likely help me exit the organization … than she was willing help me fix my circumstance. That was the day I knew I would leave.
It all worked out – there were so many good things that came from that role … and frankly, I likely would have stayed at that company for many more years if that hadn’t happened, which meant I wouldn’t have moved on to the next great chapters of my career.
That said, I still can’t look at the Starbucks outside the expo hall without some feelings.
I am definitely not the same person … nor would I want to be.
After all:
No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river – and he is not the same man
See you next Monday
Jason Buffington .com 
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