Opening Week Hectic-ness

Just got told today what my schedule is for opening week (well plus about 5 days before hand) - my reaction: 'ahhhhh!!!!'

It sounds like it will be amazing - parties, networking, meeting some pretty famous people. But oh my god will I be tired. There are three of us interning with the public programs and education department and we will be running around like crazy. I believe on one day I will be organising artists to be in the right place, sitting on a bus with international curators, heading to the Art Gallery of NSW, then Pier 2/3 for a party, then onto Cockatoo Island for another party. And that is just one day! I may need to sleep in the Biennale office that week, so I don't waste time on transport getting there!

I am looking forward to it - any nervousness about meeting and greeting these people will, I am sure, be gone very quickly once it gets up to speed, and of course, social lubricant provided at these parties always helps!

Look forward to some very interesting stories once the week begins...

The joys of envelope stuffing

When you think interning, there are three menial jobs that come to mind: getting coffee, photocopying, and mail outs.

Now, fortunately, I have not had to do much, if any, of the first two. Today, however, was the first massive mail out that required major amounts of envelope stuffing. The Biennale starts in a couple of weeks, so invites to opening week events needed to be sent out. Now I assumed that there would be alot of mail involved, but today 20 000 invites were packed, to be sent out to over 3000 people! And this was only to the people that RSVP'd and doesn't include the benefactors or ambassadors of the Biennale. So wow!

I was doing the international list and it really gives you an idea of just how far an event of this type reaches. Places I had guessed - New Zealand, the UK, North America, Europe, parts of Africa. But Lorestan and the Kyrgyz Republic?? Sorry, where?? (I googled it - Lorestan is in Western Iran and the Kyrgyz Republic is in Central Asia, bordered by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China - if that helps! Learning a bit of geography too!)

It's great to think that so many countries get involved (even if it did mean my list for invites was 35 A3 pages!), giving the Biennale a real international flavour and bringing a whole range of knowledge and experiences to the table.

Conquering my fear of the phone!

I have a fear of using the phone! I know that sounds pretty silly in this day and age but it makes me nervous having to call people. I am ok answering phones, but having to make the call... I am always worried I will say the wrong thing, or that I will be asked a question I don't know the answer to, or that I will start babbling. Generally, the way I get over it is to remember to breathe and try to tell myself that it really isn't life threatening, and then I usually write myself a script in an attempt to limit the babbling!

So the other day in the office, I had to make multiple phone calls to restaurants in order to get a quote for holding a dinner. So I was a little nervous. I had my script at the ready, took a deep breathe and dialed the first number. And guess what... it went fine! Sorry to not give you any embarrassing stories but there was only limited babbling and no major problems. Throughout the day there were one or two close calls when I was asked a question I didn't know the answer to, but I got very good at deflection!

So I feel like a proper grown up, and am very proud of myself - maybe next time, I won't need a script!

...well, maybe just in case...