Opening Ceremonies Dress Rehearsal

I was a bit disappointed to find out that my section was "Jamaica"...only because we were stationed outside near the main entrance (gate G, the ramp down, the area near the performers' entrance/exit and the area behind the security entrance). OUTSIDE FOR 10 HOURS??!! Surely, they'll let us work half the shift indoors. Well, no such luck.

But, what do you do? You make the best of it. I have 10 event services hosts that report to myself and my supervisor (who works for Vanoc). He and I have both never worked at the UBC venue and have no training...so we stumbled through it together. Half of our "staff" are actually workers at BC Place so they have quite a bit of knowledge of the venue. They are also unionized employees, so that was a bit different making sure all of their needs were met. Fun times!

This is what our shift entailed:

- quick training for myself and my supervisor from noon to 12:45...we walked our Jamaica section to be sure we understood where it was and which posts were ours

- Meeting up with our 10 hosts at 12:45 and then taking them outside to tour them around our section and start setting them up at their positions.

- 1:50 -- my supervisor and I quickly head into eat our lunch (lunch ends at 2pm and neither of us had had time to grab anything yet)

- 2pm -- the gates opened and people started coming through our area to head into BC Place

- 2:30 -- I realize that with 5 of my 10 people being unionized staff, I need to make sure I start heading them onto a 15-minute break (as they are required to have two 15-minute breaks and one 30 minute dinner). Now I am juggling to make sure all our posts are covered and the rain is pouring down (hard to write a shift schedule when your paper is turning to mush!)

3:30 -- I cannot feel my hands or my toes. I am frozen solid so head inside to grab myself a hot tea...and to bring out coffees to my workers

4:00 -- the crowds are quite large now as 40-50,000 people are attending this dress rehearsal (we've been told?)

4:45 -- Kirk and Emma instant message me and we say a quick hello as they are trying to head inside for the 5pm start (and they heard that the first dress rehearsal ran out of food so they wanted to go grab some dinner inside from the concession before that happened!)

5pm -- I run into Brad and his wife and cute new baby ... they are heading inside as well. I grumble to them about how cold I am...I want to see inside!

5pm -- I start sending my "staff" inside for their 30 minute dinner breaks (on rotation).

5:45pm -- most of us are inside for dinner now...we try to dry out and warm up. Quite a few of us stay a full hour, as we are not needed outside.

7pm -- I start hearing rumours about the singing stars who are taking part in the ceremony...alas, I cannot tell you who they are until after Friday night! I've been sworn to secrecy and even signed a confidentiality agreement when I got to work today.

7:25pm -- I somehow sneak my way inside BC Place to watch one big star sing a portion of the night. It was cool...I can only stay 5 minutes though because I have a 7:30 egress meeting outside (to go over egress -- how spectators will leave the facility)

7:30 -- I attend the egress meeting, but just before it starts, I am walking along and realize I am beside a BIG ROCK STAR! He gets in a vehicle and waves to a small group of us with a big big smile on his face. So cool! I am star struck for sure!

7:45 -- our egress meeting starts. I should have stayed inside BC Place for longer!

8:00 -- we get our staff ready at the various posts and get prepared to answer a lot of questions (mostly directional in nature). Telling people how to get to the Skytrain, Canada line and to various streets downtown

9:00 -- with most people now gone, a 12 year old boy approaches me to say he is lost and can he borrow my cell phone to call his mom? I spend the next 30 minutes trying to track down his mom (who is at home in White Rock) and his aunt (who he came to the venue with). Unfortunately the boy doesn't know his aunt's cell number...but he has his mom's phone numbers so she calls me back and we play a bit of "operator" to get the aunt and the boy reunited. I am on my walkie talkie/radio quite a bit (with the VCC or Base) to try to sort it all out while also making sure I remain calm and keep him talking about all sorts of topics so that he doesn't freak out.

9:40 -- His aunt comes and picks him up from me (with a police officer). All is good and I feel a HUGE sense of relief and feel like I really made a difference tonight!

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