Just Another Customer

Oscar the Grouch I am not

Not necessarily a good idea to provide refreshments with nowhere to put the trash (or what goes in must go out)!

Event: Web Managers Roundtable Seminar
Location: Washington, DC
Company: Unknown
Customer Experience Grade: B

Yesterday, I attended a seminar entitled Marketing Optimization: The Holy Grail of Continuous Improvement. It was hosted at the National Geographic building in Washington DC. The keynote speaker was Jim Sterne of the Web Analytics Association and the Emetrics summits.

All in all, I was very happy with the content of the meeting, the presenters (which included several members of the web staff at National Geographic) and, above all, the venue. The building and facilities were fantastic and made me more than a little envious. The one drawback was that during the pre-meeting networking session in the lobby, there were no trash receptacles to be found. There may well have been one somewhere but I took a few laps around the area to no avail and even more time carrying around an empty coffee cup. I actually wanted to get a muffin but didn’t want to drag around more baggge. I ended up ditching the cup on the top of a table somewhere but I would have rather put it in its proper place.

Unfortunately, I could not gather from the meeting announcement who was actually responsible for organizing the catering portion and I don’t want to lay the blame on National Geographic as I really did like their building. This same problem has occurred at numerous other events that I have attended and I am hoping that someone will finally catch on that what goes in must go out.