Beginnings

The last week has been incredibly rushed, but not to the point of chaos. It's hard to believe that a week and a day ago, I was just finishing a vacation in Utah to see my parents' new place and relax a bit after graduation. I applied for a really interesting traveling marketing job while on vacation, and managed to set up an in-person interview for the day after I got back to Eugene (only a week ago). I was hired almost immediately, and set to three intense days of packing my belongings in storage to head up to Portland Monday morning for training. The job is representing Crocs at major running, triathlon, and cycling events across the country. We get to work at expos, finish line display, as well as grassroots/guerilla marketing efforts surrounding events. Monday's training went quickly, and after a brief dinner excursion with a friend who currently has a sweet Nike internship, I boarded a plane for Atlanta, Georgia to meet up with the rest of my team.

I arrived in Atlanta after a nice long red-eye and got to experience the MARTA public train system, which was surprisingly efficient. I checked into the hotel and took a nap while waiting for the team to arrive in the 16 foot box trucks I'll be driving around the country for the next 5.5 months. Only one of the trucks was due to arrive on Tuesday, as the other truck had broken down on the way from Colorado. They arrived in the late afternoon and I got to learn set-up first hand as we put together the display for our booth at the expo for the Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10K race in the country (estimated 55,000 participants). Set-up went smoothly and I went to dinner with a brand ambassador and retail manager I'll be working with for the duration of the tour.

Wednesday was the first day of the expo, and turnout was a little low partly due to it being the middle of the week, and partly because race packets had been mailed out which reduced the incentive to come to the expo. Regardless, I got a good handle on how the data capture surveys work, the types of premiums we'll be giving away, Crocs shoe models in general (my first pair were Tikalis) and how expos work. We also managed to get free entries into the race thanks to some connections at Reebok (title sponsor of the event) and will be running it in the morning in full Crocs garb (including Beaches on the feet) as some fun grassroots marketing exposure since we don't have to do a finish line setup for this event.

Today the expo was much busier and went smoothly, other than the freight elevator being broken during takedown, which resulted in some creative improvisation and alternate routes to get large displays down several stories to the truck. Overall, the experience has been great so far, and I'm looking forward to several more days in Atlanta with more free time to really get a better for the city.

This blog will attempt to serve as a record of many of the unique and interesting experiences I have on the road for the rest of the year. Once I have an iPhone (July 11 or shortly thereafter), this blog should become much more interesting as I'll start throwing lots of pictures in. In the mean time, expect lots of text descriptions. This should be fun.