Throwback Thursday: Vegas

Throwback Thursday: On March 23, 2016, while working at GlobalShop 2016, our annual, three-day trade show in Las Vegas, I had the audacity to play a piano in the Four Seasons Hotel. I worked as the Associate Editor for "Shop! Enhancing Retail Environments & Experiences," an international, nonprofit association for companies that manufacture components for retail store displays, including mannequins, lighting, showcases, shelving, framing, plastics, flooring, graphics, signage, etc., plus architectural firms and analytical-research companies. I was an editor, a writer, and an occasional photo editor for the association's two monthly trade magazines and for its news website from February 8, 2016, to February 6, 2017, in an office in Hollywood, Florida. I also worked in conjunction with our staff in Chicago, editing statistical-analysis reports that sold for lots and lots of money. They really were expensive, but I am just being lighthearted about it. I had never worked on anything that sold for more than a thousand dollars each. It certainly was an ego booster, but I guess it's all relative. Seriously, this job was the most complex job I had ever had since becoming a journalist in 1982, so I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. It was like I had hit the big time, so I felt almost intimidated by the intricate functioning of my job and the high caliber of my co-workers. Unfortunately, I had to leave this job in less than a year due to illness. Working at the show was quite a challenge. I had never worked at a trade show until this one. I had just started my job about three weeks earlier, so I didn't know much about the retail industry. I was feeling rather tired and weak because several weeks earlier, I spent about a week in the hospital with cellulitis (severe infection) in one of my legs. I had wounds (diabetic ulcers) in both of my feet (I still do), so during this trip, I would have to rebandage my bloody feet every night before bed. More than 750 companies exhibited in a 715,000-square-foot space, so I had to do a lot of lengthy walking and a lot of fast learning. Still, I consider myself to be blessed to have received such an interesting experience. I absolutely loved it. I felt like Dorothy arriving in Oz.

Here is a link to the four magazine articles that I wrote during my short gig with the association. I conducted the many interviews for my LED lighting article during this trip.

http://williamsantoswritingsamples.blogspot.com/

(Click the link, and then you can click on the pages to enlarge them.)

The best part of this trip was visiting a dear friend whom I hadn't been with in many years. I have known Bryan, who lives in Las Vegas, since my birth in 1961, almost 61 years ago. We basically shared the same backyard in Babylon, Long Island, New York, from 1961 until my parents and I moved to a nearby town during the summer of 1972. At the time of the trade show in 2016, we hadn't been together in about 19 years.