I’d been to the gym late the previous evening and gone into the steam room before taking the rental car to the airport for the red-eye.
I would have slept soundly but the person next to me kept sneezing. Probably in the throes of a cold. He didn’t stop spraying all over me, always brought his hand to his face too late.
Someone grabbed my luggage off the belt thinking it was his own, and I had to wrest it back with an early-morning face-to-face stare-down.
Traffic was miserable for the four of us coming from the airport, and my ride-hailing driver was even more miserable about the fare. We pulled off the highway and bought him a coffee. He didn’t like it after the first sip, so I finished it for him. He grabbed gas (he was upset it was $1.20 a litre, a bargain back home) while we took turns in the washroom. Why don’t the faucets ever work in their sinks? No toilet paper. First World problem, we agreed.
The company parking lot is always full by 7:30, and today was no different. We could see people through the windows hollering on their headsets over the din.
We sat cheek-to-jowl in the waiting room before we crowded into the elevator to be whisked into the meeting room, exchanged warm handshakes – one slightly sweaty one from the guy who’d come in last night from Stateside – and traded business cards with a half-dozen people around the table.
I spilled my coffee but someone handed me a fresh mug. I could smell hangover from the guy beside me, even two feet apart.
Before we got into the presentation, I had to endure inside jokes about the company bowling league. They laughed so hard some of them broke down in fits of coughing. I wouldn’t be joining them later that day at the lanes, but we had a big lunch in store before I was leaving. We were lucky to get the reservation. The place was always packed. Great buffet. I was heading from there to my favourite hair salon. Love the massage that comes with it.
I was miffed that my partner was teleconferencing in. He didn’t want to miss his daughter’s playoff game, but I thought: “Who does that? Who ever takes an important meeting remotely? What is the world coming to?” The technology never works. You can’t get a feel for the important body language in a room. The sound is a mess. The video is grainy. It kills the vibe. It’ll never replace the dynamic of business in a room of people. Never.
Usually I could forgive him. He was, after all, our deal-closer, the guy who put his hand on your shoulder and looked you in the eye when it was time to earn trust and get to yes.
Today, though, it would be my turn to be tactile, even if I preferred the backroom, the shoulder-to-shoulder sharing of the spreadsheet with the numbers person, poking at the touchscreen, high-fiving when we had mastered the deal.
A few minutes into the deck someone noted that the office suddenly had room in the suite for the game tonight. Did I want to go? If I had to be honest, no. I’d prefer to hightail it in rush hour to the airport to get back for the hockey game tonight – coming up on playoff time, at long last – much more than to watch basketball here. I get they’re champions, I get that we pour the wine liberally for each other all game, but it’s not as if they won’t be done in the playoffs before May.
May seems so far, far away. I’ll need a cruise or a trip to Hawaii before then. If only there were deals. Then again, I’d have to take the kids out of school. Hate for them to miss a week at this stage. You can never really catch up.
Presentation went well. We agreed their team would come out to the coast for due diligence. We’ll go up to Whistler for some serious slopes, even if the highway is clogged. Wish the Seahawks were playing, but they’ll be back later this year for us to take in a game.
I think I could get used to the commute once a week for a day or so once the deal is done. It’s Canada, after all, and unlike the rest of the world, nothing much happens here. •
Kirk LaPointe is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver and the vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media.
