90°

I received a cryptic text two days ago from a co-worker. She asked if I could potentially move my travel day up from the 13th to the 12th next month. I responded that I could and asked what was up. She only replied, “90°.”

The project I am working on is in San Francisco next month. There are two identical events that happen back to back. One in January and a similar one in February. Same organization, different internal groups. They utilize the same room layout and have for years.

The January event went off without a hitch but for some reason, the second group decided they wanted to shake things up. They wanted to turn the room 90°.

On paper, this seems easy enough; however, it is not.

It requires completely re-engineering rigging and cable paths and backstage footprints and case storage and front of house control and audio layout and lighting deployment. . . etc. We would have to work fast and focused for the few weeks remaining before the event.

It’s a lot to rotate 90°.

But I waited.

I receive an invite to a teams meeting with the subject being, “Room Redesign 90°.”

And I waited.

thirty minutes before the meeting an email marked urgent came out confirming that we were indeed NOT rotating the room 90°.

I have been in this line of work for a long time. I knew I needed to let the dust settle before making any big changes. One thing truly drives everything in our industry. Cost.

The cost of the 90° turn was too high.

Strategic procrastination utilized properly can deter a great amount of stress. Use with caution.

Thank you for reading.