Urbana behind the scenes

Urbana has come and gone! And now that I've had a behind the scene's look at some of the inner workings of Urbana, here are a few of the funnier stories from my week in St. Louis.

During registration on the first day, a young woman approached us and said there was a sign on the Missouri Athletic Club (one of the more prestigious hotels Urbana used) saying it was closed! Heart attack and a half! We immediately called the hotel asking what the deal was and they said, "oh, we always have that sign up...you just have to ring the doorbell!" Now how many hotels do you know of that you have to ring the doorbell to?

Another funny mishap (well it's funny now), was that a staff worker named David who was working with me checked into his hotel room a few days prior to the convention. David knew that a Tim Peterson, an older mature white staff worker, would join him when the convention started. Day one of the convention David goes to his hotel room to find a young Asian college student sleeping on the couch in the room. He thought it odd, but went to sleep anyways thinking maybe Tim had a student who needed somewhere to crash. Day two David stops by on lunch break and finds a girl sleeping in his bed and the same guy still asleep on the couch. Much later that evening, he finally finds the guy on the couch and introduces himself. Much to his surprise, the young college student answers back, "my name is Tim Peterson." After much going back and forth, it turns out there happens to be two Tim Peterson's. Tim Peterson the elder and Tim Peterson the younger. Both of who know each other. Somehow I managed to house the wrong Tim Peterson with David! Luckily for all parties concerned, neither David’s wife or Tim Peterson the elder’s wife called the hotel asking for Tim Peterson’s room when Tim Peterson the younger’s female friend happened to be taking a nap. That would have been interesting to sort out! It's going to be a while before I live that one down!

But perhaps what was the most fun of all was teaching 20,000 eager new consumers how to use hotels. There are now 20,000 young students who now know that if you check out early from a hotel, you get charged a cancellation fee...or that you must put down a credit card or pay in cash when you check in. Or my favorite, if you don't check out before the listed check out time, you will get charged for an extra night! And yes these were all real situation or questions that got asked multiple times during the week! But I can rest assured that there will be 20,000 more people prepared to enter the hotel world and survive!

Urbana overall was really great and encouraging! If you haven’t gotten a chance to see any of the speakers, check it out at www.urbana.org.
-Sarah