Women in uniform

I spent yesterday working at the inaugural Sydney 2023 Visitor Economy Forum … in uniform.

I haven’t worn a uniform since high school. It was a shock to the system.

I looked a bit like a geriatric air hostess. Sorry I don’t have a full length shot, but you get the general idea.

I was also very crumpled by the end of the day because the uniform was navy linen.

The two blokes on the far right are the Minister for Tourism and my boss. They wore the male uniform of the corporate world – suits.

In case you are wondering what the “visitor economy” is, it’s the office term for the tourism industry in NSW.

I’m not sure it’s entirely caught on yet, as lots of people were calling it tourism yesterday. I twitched every time they said it.

Anyways, as I will report in my weekly newsletter … the event was a chance for stakeholders to hear about the initiatives that are turbocharging the NSW visitor economy post-COVID-19.

It was absolutely gouting down as I was getting ready to catch the bus into town. So I decided, bugger it, I was going to drive in. It was a fairly stressful commute – accompanied by a soundtrack of a radio announcer listing all the accidents and flooding in Sydney – and I accidentally went via the city centre, which added about 20 minutes to the trip. But I arrived in time for early bird parking at Darling Harbour, which was only $17 – a bargain if you ask me.

Prior to the event, I wrote a welcome messages and a speech, which was surreal to hear being presented to a room full of people.

I was also in charge of taking notes on all the presentations and panel discussions, plus making sure the photographer and videographer fulfilled their briefs.

The videographer part involved hunting down various important people and asking them if they would agree to appear on camera, then standing off camera asking them questions about the visitor economy.

It was quite exhausting. I may be getting too old to work that hard.

When it was time to do the networking part at the end of the official stuff, I begged off and tottered home to cook dinner.

I literally had trouble stringing a sentence together as I made chicken stir fry.

And now it’s time to get up and do it all over again, as Tuesday is our official go into the office day.

I’m still knackered. Hopefully caffeine will get me through.

Song of the day: Skyhooks “Women in uniform”