#10 - King’s speech and King-size room

It was going to be an exciting trip to Cannes, France. I was clearly nervous, because I was going to give my speech for a big audience. Luckily the conference organizers had taken care of all the practical arrangements to make my stay comfortable.

I travelled to Cannes together with two of my bosses, Mr T. and Mr P, who had vice president and senior vice president positions in the company. We signed in late night night at a superior hotel next to the Boulevard de la Croisette on the Mediterranean beach. It was time to go straight to bed.

When I entered into my room, the first feeling was a surprise. There was a corridor in my room. After switching the lights on, I started to look around. There was a door to a bedroom. There was also a door to a big bathroom and another door to a toilet. I found also a door to a living room. One more door led to another bedroom, which had an extra door to a third bedroom. As a surprise, I had got a suite of three bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, and a toilet. Anyway, it was late night and I had to make a difficult decision, i.e., in which room to sleep tonight.

The next morning started with breakfast. I was sitting together with my bosses, who discussed about their small rooms. I was listening for a while before I had enough courage to tell them about my suite. Luckily the bosses had some sense of humour, so we had a good laugh about it.

The first day at the World conference was busy. Thousands of people, lot of presentations and new technology gadgets to see, not to speak about all the fancy boats at the harbour. That night I practised my presentation in front of a mirror and felt some tension.

Palace de Festival, Cannes

The big day started. Red carpets guided me to the main auditorium of the Palace de Festival. I felt like a movie star in front of the huge audience, even if I was not a participant at the Cannes film festival. Soon after starting my talk, I realized that it is going well. I started to relax and enjoy being on the spotlight, literally. For a junior professional that was the turning point – no more stress in front of any audience.

At the evening I used my opportunity to relax and celebrate, so I visited the big beach party. If I remember right, Leningrad cowboys was playing and acting their entertaining Balalaika Show. I enjoyed the show at the Mediterranean beach.

Boats at Cannes Marina

Lessons learnt:

Jump into the situation and the tension is gone.

Courage to jump into challenge will be rewarded.