Aspire

Every May the company I work for sends a select group of employees to spend 4 days in Orlando, Florida. Employees nominated to go are those that have demonstrated strong leadership and initiative throughout the previous year, and while in Florida they find themselves in a crazy hectic schedule that perfectly combines leadership development and Disney fun! The name of this even is Aspire, and this year I was awarded with the chance to take part in this amazing opportunity.

The event started with a very early Sunday morning arrival at the Portland airport. When I walked through the automatic doors I saw my director and small number of other employees already in line at the ticket counter. That line only continued to grow, and I was so glad that I arrived when I did. Due largely to a staffing shortage for the airline, the check in process was nothing short of a fiasco. Thankfully, because I had arrived when I did my wait was minimal (30 minutes), and made it through security with enough time for me to get Starbucks (since I hadn’t had any coffee yet this was a godsend). But to give you an example of what I mean by fiasco, when they started boarding the plane there were still 30 employees at the ticket counter trying to check in. Somehow it all worked itself out and our flight left more or less on time. It took two flights to get to Orlando and both were pretty uneventful. A bus service was waiting for us at the airport and in no time were seated and headed off to the hotel.

Disney’s website lists the Yacht Club as one of its “Resort” hotels, and it does not disappoint! The resort and Unum had arranged our own welcome and check-in area and within minutes of getting my room and conference info I was ushered into our own little “dining hall” filled with good food and coffee! There was a group event planned for that evening but there were several hours between lunch and then, which meant free time to explore! I passed the afternoon walking with my coworkers, walking through the Boardwalks shops and restaurants and soaking in the sun and excitement that was everywhere we looked!

That first night we had a welcome “South Beach Soiree” on Shipwreck beach right in front of the hotel. There were tables full of delicious food, an open bar (which mean nothing to me but made a lot of other people very happy), music, entertainment, and visits from Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Donald and Daisy Duck. I got my picture taken with Mickey and Minnie, participated in the hula hooping competition (I got second among the women), and danced – yes actually danced in public – and had an all around blast! When I got back to my room, there was a gift bag on the bed holding a huge massive Mickey Mouse beach towel. I’ll say here, that each of us had our own hotel room, and it was truly a luxury to have my own quiet space to go back to each night and to have breakfast in bed in the morning!

Our schedule for the week was to attend conference sessions in the mornings, free time in the afternoons, and then a fun group event for each night. We were given a pass that would get us into any of the Disney parks, but Monday there was only one place on my mind: Magic Kingdom. I went with one other woman from my department and we walked through the park soaking up the excitement and happiness surrounding us. I would have liked to go on some of the rides but decided I didn’t want to waste my time waiting in line. Well, I didn’t want to wait in line with one big exception. To me there was one thing that without doubt was worth waiting for, and that was to meet Ariel. The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie, Ariel is my second favorite princess, and this chance was not something I was going to pass up. Thankfully my co-worker didn’t mind waiting with me, and thankfully even though it was hot, we were out of the sun and avoided a potentially bad sunburn.

Now, I like to think that, for the most part, I am able to present myself as a grown responsible adult. A person who knows the movies I grew up watching were the most wonderful representations of make believe, but were nonetheless make believe. Someone who knew that Disney princesses were not real. But when my turn came for me to go up and meet Ariel and she looked at me with those big green eyes, and talked to me, asking me questions that only the real Ariel would ask, I felt myself turn back into the child who knew that magic and mermaids and fairytales were real. I couldn’t even think straight, couldn’t form a coherent sentence, so stunned I was by this revelation!

Wandering through the rest of the park we also saw Gaston and Cinderella’s evil stepmother and stepsisters walking around the park (although I didn’t meet them). We did a little bit of shopping and I got my one souvenir from the trip – a Beauty and the Beast tea cup (I do want to say that I was very proud of myself for not buying every coffee cup I saw because I definitely wanted to!), and in no time I found the one and only Starbucks in the park (not too surprising this is me we’re talking about). I also saw that Hall of Presidents show, which was really cool!

That evening we all met up at the hotel and were bussed over to Animal Kingdom. The park itself was closed for the day, but my company had made arrangements for us to go into the park after hours and for the whole night we had “Dinoland” all to ourselves. There were rides that we could go on as many times as we wanted to with no waiting! There were carnival games that we got to play over and over and over again. They had caricature artists there and everyone who wanted to got drawn for free! There was more music and dancing, and of course lots of great food. Goofy and Pluto made an appearance too! I participated in all of it, and was blissfully worn out by the time I got back to my room. There was another gift waiting for me too, a super comfy t-shirt that said Aspire (it’s my new favorite pj shirt now), and a box of cookies!

 

On Tuesday after the conference, I and the same coworker decided to spend our afternoon walking through Epcot. I had heard a lot of wonderful things about the different countries and was excited to take a trip around the world! We wandered through France, Morocco, Japan, The US, Italy, Germany and China. Right before we got to China we stopped a little shopping stall and I found there a little flier showing where and when multiple Disney characters would be greeting guests. I had up to that point seen Princess Aurora, SnowWhite and Mulan, but hadn’t felt a need to stand in line to meet them. But scanning that list there was one name that jumped out instantly: Belle. My favorite Disney princess of all time ever! And she would be waiting in France to greet people in less than an hour. 

I stayed with my group long enough to watch a very cool movie in China, before backtracking and racing to France. Even though I got there right on time, a good long line had already amassed, and I was a little nervous they would cut it off before I got to say hello (the characters are only there for 30 minutes at time). Thankfully I worried for nothing, and quietly waited, melting in the super hot sun, for my turn. The line slowly dwindled and finally I was walking toward Belle. Each step I took lead me farther away from the 26 year old woman I was, and back to the 6 year old I had once been. I was practically trembling with excitement as I told her she was my favorite princess, and we talked about our hiking and riding horses and of course reading. When I got my picture taken with her I said goodbye and walked away positively glowing.  I was once more the little girl who believed in enchanted castles in the woods, and that a single rose held the power to change ones destiny.

Our group event that night was something I had been anxiously awaiting from the second I had seen the itinerary months before: Cirque du Soleil. I had been introduced to the impossibly fantastical performances this company produces years ago when I watched the shows on video at my aunt and uncles. I had loved everything I had seen then, and was certain that seeing a show in person would only amaze me more. I was not wrong.

The show we saw was “La Nouba” and the company’s website describes it as “La Nouba is the meeting of two worlds poles apart: the fantastic world of the circus artists - the Cirques (circus people), sporting bright, fluorescent colours–and that of the Urbains (urbanites), who wear dark, monochromatic outfits. When these two worlds first make contact, the magic and amazing feats of the one set fire to the pale mundanity of the other”. This doesn’t really explain much, and the show itself didn’t really do that either, but I think that is part of the beauty of it all. We are provided with the basics allowing our imagination to fill in the spaces between with a beautiful story. The live music and singing was phenomenal, and the performers and what they did left me speechless, shocked and delighted. It is truly astonishing the feats they are capable of.

After the show, we walked across the street to enjoy dinner at the House of Blues. There were tables full of delicious food waiting for us, and we ate while listening to great music from a live band. I heard from many employees that the whole night there was full of crazy fun, but after eating me and a few others decided to walk through the shops of Downtown Disney and so we left. After 3 days of crazy action packed activity, it was nice to move at a slow leisurely pace, and after we had done all the shopping we desired (or in my case window shopped), we hopped back onto the bus back to the hotel. That night’s gift was wicked cool – a set of speakers for my iPod (this was something I’d been wanting for a while) and an iTunes gift card!

As for the actual conference, I don’t plan on going into a lot of detail. I do think it was very well put together and that I gained some useful tools to help me with my job now, and my career in the future. Throughout everything we did the emphasis was on the customer, and how we can better ourselves and our company to provide the best customer service experience possible. On the first day our keynote speaker was Peter Sheahan. He has is the found and CEO of ChangeLabs which is (as stated on his website)  a “global consultancy delivering large-scale behavioral change projects for clients such as Apple and IBM, Peter Sheahan has worked with some of the world’s leading brands in the area of innovation and change”. If any of you ever get a chance to hear him speak take it, he did a phenomenal job. He has also written several international bestselling books which I definitely plan on reading.

On Tuesday, we had a group exercise focused on the concept of design thinking. It is a human centered approach to innovation that I find refreshing, and for anyone interested in learning what it’s about I recommend going to the website of IDEO. This is a company that runs off this concept, and one that looks like it would be a lot of fun to work for!

Our last morning of the conference was our community service project. My company is big on corporate social responsibility and regularly encourages and supports its employees in their philanthropic efforts. This day we put together grab bags, ribbons, and created signs of encouragement for the Special Olympics of Florida Summer Games which were to be held the following week. This was a lot fun, and culminated with us presenting the Special Olympics of FL with a large donation.

One of the company executives was on stage getting to wrap everything up when Heidi Hightower (our delightfully hilarious Disney host) came rushing up the steps telling him to hold everything because there was one last surprise for us all. She said that as a thank you for everything that we do, they wanted to give us a special parting gift. This conference was held in a large conference room at the Yacht club, with huge sets of double doors around three sides of the room. As she said this the two sets of doors closest to me burst open, and through one of them came Mickey and Minnie Mouse! Even though we had all seen them the first night this was very exciting and the room immediately erupted in applause and cheers. A few second after they made their entrance, through the second set of doors danced in Cinderella and Prince Charming!!!! I gave a small shriek of joy at the sight of them, and I was not the only one. Most, if not all, of us were by now on our feet clapping and cheering, so it took me a few moments to realize that across the room Goofy and Pluto were working their way through the crowd, and that a few steps behind them were Snow White and Dopey!! I was so excited and beyond thrilled to see all of them. I of course had to get my picture taken with Cinderella and then practically skipped over to get one with Snow White. It was so cool that the company

had brought them out just for us, and was no doubt the most perfectly spectacular way to end a most magical week!