The Florida Eras (um…work) Tour
Every Major City, FL. The Tour has concluded. Was it profitable? Ummm…well, suffice it to say that it didn’t compete with Taylor Swift Era’s Tour. It had it its successes though: Reconnecting with old work friends? check. Making new ones? check. Strengthening work collaborations? check.
In various roles, Sandi has worked with the Schneider Electric Florida Area for more than 20 years. She has had her own set of Eras. Sales Operations Manager. Quotes Manager. Pricing Manager. We chose to begin our adventures by letting Sandi enjoy an Eras tour of her own touching base with the internal clients with which Sandi works most closely - the staff of the Florida Field Offices. Our tour stopped at each of the major metro areas. Here are the highlights of each of the tour stops:
JACKSONVILLE - As mentioned in a previous post, while in Jacksonville, we enjoyed a great happy hour and dinner with Sandi’s coworkers Ashley, Bob, and Clay. Bob kept us entertained with soooo many great stories!
ORLANDO - Also, as mentioned in a previous post, while we were in Orlando, we attended a retirement party for one of Sandi’s best current work friends (John) - and a gaggle of retired work friends. The next day, we also grew new friendships enjoying a wonderful home cooked seafood dinner hosted by Ilka and Orlando. Ilka prepared the following for our dinner: steamed jumbo gulf shrimp, steamed lobster tail, baked scallops, and an Alfredo based pasta dish that made use of some of the scallops. It was wonderful! Their house is only a short drive from Cape Canaveral so we actually saw a Space X rocket launch from their backyard. Orlando demonstrated some of his DJ and musical skills with compositions he had created. A multifaceted man for sure.
MIAMI - While we did spend a few days in the Miami area, there wasn’t any South Beach for us this time. The focus was back onto Sandi’s work and the Miami area. Ujwal, Nelson, Dave, Margarita, Roger, Nancy, and Jim were among the people Sandi met up with for lunches, meetings, and happy hours. You may have noticed, most of the Schneider get togethers seemed to revolve around eating and drinking…just sayin’.
FT. MYERS - In Fort Myers, we met up with two of Sandi’s peers Brandi and Richmond, as well as a new Sales Engineer Matt. There was, of course, eating and drinking involved. It’s always great to pay homage to Brandi and her husband Walt. They are the inspiration for what we are doing. Brandi and Walt have been living full time in their RV for several years now. Brandi enabled us to do what we’re doing by introducing the idea of working from the truck to Sandi. They have made the choice to stay in places much longer than we do, but it seems to work great for them. In fact, they’ve bought an RV spot in Ft. Myers (yes, that’s really a thing - some cost upwards of $300k) and they have really turned it into a resort location of sorts.
TAMPA - The finale of the Eras Tour. Attendees from the previous locations made a point to travel to Tampa for the Grand Finale. Sandi is, indeed, loved in the Florida area! Okay…I guess the truth must come out…the attendees all came to Tampa because their boss told them to. It was for a previously scheduled area meeting and Sandi got to join in. Then again, they did get her a birthday cake and sing “happy birthday” to her, so there’s that. As a group, they planned and strategized and made a “great escape” (from an escape room…as a team building). As nod to the real Eras tour, they were “Fearless” and a couple people who didn’t like the escape room were able to “Shake it Off”. The next night, at the next team building at Dave & Busters, they all toasted to their “Champagne Problems”. Enough swiftie references? Or should we continue? Assuming the latter, on to the next things.
P.S. - negotiations are already underway for the Eras Tour Take 2 coming to a Florida city next year…