Dress Rehearsal #1

My shift at the Stadium Venue Communications Centre (VCC) didn't start until 3:30 pm today so I had the kind of Monday morning I never get: I slept in: I cooked bacon and eggs; I walked to Starbucks, the bank, and the bakery; I called my parents; and I had lunch (with a bit of e-mail tossed in).

I hopped on the bus and SkyTrain to the Stadium. The Workforce check in lady was just as bubbly as yesterday. Can they keep this up for the entire Games?

Scheduled for tonight was the first dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremonies with about 20,000 relatives of the performers attending for free. It not only gave the performers a chance to practice in the Stadium in sequence for Friday but it gave the rest of us who work in the BOH (back of house) a chance to practice moving people in and out and taking care of them.

Although the gates did not open until 4 p.m. there were already spectators lined up to get in when I arrived at the Workforce check in at 3 p.m. 

When I walked into the VCC room I could not believe what I saw. The room in which just four of us with two managers worked yesterday now had 16 people and two managers in it. It was a tad warmer and louder than yesterday.

One of our managers had started referring to us as Smurfs--for obvious reasons when you see us together as a large group.

I watched for a half hour while the first shift ended their day and had a debriefing. It sounded like the morning had been pretty busy and now with the gates about to open things were hopping.

We were lucky to have a dedicated medical dispatcher with us to take care of all the medical issues. Because she normally works as staff at BC Place Stadium, she was a great asset to call on.

We also had dedicated folks with us from Event Services (EVS)--the people that are hosts and take care of the spectators needs in the Stadium. The EVS supervisor was from Greece and had previously worked at the Athens and Torino Olympic Games.

Some of the more "interesting" issues we dealt with and events that happened in my seven hour shift:

• I learned a new term. The tunnels in the Stadium between sections out of which spectators pour into the concourse at the end of an event (or during an event) are call vomitories. I kid you not. Let that image sit in your mind for a minute or two. As used in a sentence overheard today: "Please close the curtains on all the vomitories on level 2."
• We dealt with food and beverage issues. A cooler full of Vitamin water was left unlocked to that spectators could just help themselves. We were asked to find out if this is the way it was supposed to be.
• One of the performers left a prop on a stairwell briefly and it was taken by security. Could we get it back for her?
• I learned that an IPP is an International Person of Priority. In other words, do what they want.
• Event Services monitored the flow of people arriving at the Stadium and how quickly they were flowing through security. They deployed people to redirect the crowds to alternate entrances when the need arose.  Just like using valves to control the flow of water through pipes.
• On the TV we watched the Olympic Torch move through the Vancouver suburb of Surrey.
• We were asked to please have more hand towels sent to a particular women's washroom.
• A senior citizen was lost. We followed proper protocol for such an incident and it ended happily ever after with a family reunion. The VCC room applauded the news.
• We had intoxicated spectators. A hostess at dinner told us that her section was quite a handful.
• More vocabulary expansion: spectators don't arrive and depart, they ingress and egress.
• There was a raccoon reported within the secure zone. This led to a discussion on the ferociousness of urban raccoons.
• There was a dress rehearsal of the fireworks outside our window. Oooo. Ahhhh.
• The folks from Urban Domain tracked the lineups and wait times at all the SkyTrain stations around the  Stadium. Things moved relatively well. Again people were redirected from one station to another.
• After the nightly managers' meeting our VCC manager told us that the team, which has a number of folks who worked in 2002 in Salt Lake City, felt much farther ahead with four days to go than the crew  had been in Salt Lake City.

Now on Wednesday we have Dress Rehearsal #2 with a full house--about three times as many spectators. Did we learn a lot today? We sure did. 

Again we had a great, fun team. We still had time to talk and bond and share stories about our lives. Everyone is pretty pumped about what we are doing and the great show that is about to start.

I think I am very fortunate to be working where I am.

(Colophon: Most of this was typed on my BlackBerry as I stood on the street at the SkyTrain station waiting for my bus. Isn't technology grand?)