One by Sea, Two at Cruise, Three with Drone
Disclaimer: Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics: Ocean Pollution, Ecosystems, Water Waste, Animals, Nature, Organic Solutions, Cruise Ship Tours, Free Snacks, Drone Company, Startups, New Normal, Technology, Surveillance, Innovation
It’s ocean week, you know? And there’s not much more I love than taking some time by water… and free snacks! Duh! So free snacks (at the second part) on a cruise! I even invited a friend, you know? A Mars-Friend (but they couldn’t make it - and they’re moving to new orleans soon, anways!! so - guess i’ll gotta visit!! I LOVE IT THERE :) ). Now… after that, i’m hopping off the cruise and over to a drone company showing off their stuff. Why go there? Cause last week, the fire department was extremely excited about their new drone fleet. And if firemen are excited about that, I should be too, why? They love me. Just ask the dating apps. ha! no. But really. Drones are the new future, right? So… what the heck is being normalized here soon?
Why Attend: This literally sounds like the most fun day and I can’t wait. And the whole time, I can do work between, and I’m even prepping for this now, writing this preview the weekend-before. Why? Because there is so much innovation happening in this city and someone’s gotta keep up with it. Right? I’m making amazing content for kids all of the time and I want to know the latest and great. I want to know what this city is builidng, what’s the new normal in robotics, surveillence, daily life, and everything in between. I’m teaching finance, ai, innovatoin, you know? I love to learn this stuff, connect it all, take notes - put them here, and eventually break them down. BTW - did you know Kelly Tutors is now looking for interns? I’ll go make a banner about it for my homepage now. #inspired. See you there! Or below - with my notes from this mega day!!!!
Overall Events Reviewed
EVENT 1 = OCEAN WEEK SHOWCASE: Venue (2/5), Food (3/5), Speaker Content (2/5), Networking (1.9/5), Likeliness to Return (2/5)
EVENT 2 = CRUISE + SNACKS FOR OCEAN WEEK: Venue (3/5), Food (1.9/5), Speaker Content (2.9/5), Networking (1/5), Likeliness to Return (3/5)
EVENT 3 = DRONE DEMO: Venue (5/5), Food (3.5/5), Speaker Content (4/5), Networking (3/5), Likeliness to Return (5/5)
PHOTO COLLAGES & COMMENTARY:
EVENT NOTES:
I’m like. uugh. I’m so behind on 100 things (aka, not ahead on 100 things - i’m caught up I think… sorta, a few things to do). But the last thing I want to do is take time to copy/paste my notes and make sure they’re proper and blah blah. So… i’ll get to that later… right? or no!! hahahah. Should I skip all of these? The boat tour was kinda interesting. But the showcase… i dont even walk to talk about it. The Kelp showcase. I think it wasn’t too much I wrote down so, I won’t even put anything. THe pics and elaborations below are enough. I’ll skip that. :)
Okay - i’ll put them here, but i was so hangry and annoyed that the only ‘consumable’ celebrated aboard was alcohol… I don’t think I had breakfast, then all I’d had to eat was kelp stuff and almonds.. so… here we go:
NOTES FROM THE BOAT:
So far this day is mega underwhelming compared to my expectations. The good news: got work done before, at that ‘innovation showcase’ - at least i did some work.
But here I am literally on this boat. Always feeling like an honorary/wannabe member of Flexport’s ‘dream team of future innovations’.
The previous event was not my favorite at all. Just a bunch of random startups and the common theme: kelp! I mean, I get it but I don’t… only/also cause I think I’m a bit hangry. I expected more food yesterday. Now these people have chips here. Probably $5 for a bag of chips. You know? So… before I go buy a $5 bag of chips and pretend that will do much… I am eating the almonds I brought and seeing if that will last over this 3 hour tour. JK. I think it’s 1.5. How will this be? A blog of riding on a boat? Hahah. No clue.
But for real, the last event was boring and then this event everyone is just so excited for the bar. At 3pm, 2:45. Yo know? That used to be me - IN COLLEGE. But like half this boat is getting drunk right now in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. And so, it’s just not my crowd. And I thought there would be light snacks on here. It’s how it was advertised. But I think that literally means bags of chips. So… as I think it through, probably this next event, the “drone” event will be happy to spend $100 or so on a food budget . An then have snacks after. That’s nothing for a drone/tech company, right? So, I bet they’ll have good snacks there.
spoiler alert: the drone company spent almost $300 on only pizza (delivery + tip)
Now… I’m a bit more calm and it was good to vent haha. Now, I am ready to see whats is going on with this boat. I found a seat in the very last/back row/corner and the row ahead of me has two women. One I’m behind is in Hot Pink, very Kelly Tutors on brand, though she just spilled a lot of her beer sitting down in her seat. Off brand.
Cause the first girl got a drink, and then the next girl got up to go get one but it required the first girl to awkwardly stand up/move, so to make small talk, she said, “what flavor is that?” and theother girl replied: blueberry - its delicious.” So, she came back with the beer, but too eager to sit down, then spilled a lot of it on the chair near her and some on herself.
They are both having their beer. The girl wanted to tell the other girl how great it is (the beer she suggested) but they’re 4 seats apart and not makign eye contact, so she wasn’t able to say it - then she just drank her beer in silence. Blueberry ale. Maybe I can tell them I had raspberries and blackberries for lunch?
I had a nice small lunch i brought from home (just a salad and some small pieces of steak) at a new spot that I like to go almost all the time. They have free wifi, decent vibes, an amazing location and I love traveling there and back. So, all the time I work downtown now these days. Hahah. Save me some hotspot money.
This guy is with the port and he asks if we can hear him in the back - but… yes we’re right next to the speakers in teh back. And there are like 20 speakers on the ceiling now that I look at it.
He starts to talk and says people were talkign from Norway, Japan, and even local leaders.
This afternoon we heard from som nonprofits and startups rising to meet hte challenges for green manufacturing and diversifying workforce to achieve ambitious goals.
OMG this speech experience is so funny.
Many peopel cheer and clap.
This is so funny!! A presentation/speech on a boat. I’m realizing this now.
This guy keeps making eye contact with me. The main speaker - and I’m in the EXTREME back row.
He says the bar downstairs is open. OMG and soda and tea and coffee are free!! OMg that’s amazing. Let me go get a freaking drink, right? Some tea. Hahaha I”m so happy.
Oh and upstairs and downstairs write your questions and they’ll be checking them throughout the voyage and they have lots of experts here that we’ll hear from them.
One lady is super dressed up. SHe’s super yacht-sheak, probably my age too. But she looks liek Gossip Girl herself. You know, it makes me want to be her friend hahahah. Or at least in a pic with her where we both look cool. Hahah omg. Classic. Okay back to the speech (but that irl just go herself a drink, so it maekes me wanna take a pic with her less… so boring!)
This guy says he’s worked in this industry for 15 years, he worked in nonprofit for a while, and now he works here. And he had just about every job you could do in maritime (EVERY!?)
So let’s talk about Seattle. And then hand the microphone off. The port owns and manages a lot of the activities that you can see. It’s a landlord of the container terminals, they own the facility where the conference has been at. Tehy have 4 recreational marinas. One of the largest on the west coast. As well as very robust support for commercial fishing.
They own a terminal and its the home to a fishing fleet. It sin the bones of Seattle, the air we breathe and water we drink. We continue to support that fleet as they catch salmon, halibut, and all the fish that promote the economy.
We want to make the value of the waterfront public, to the voters of king county. We have 5 officials. You see we run the airport, one of the most busy airports in the world. We help drive commerce and business in our area.
One thing we don’t do anymore is manage cargo operations. About 10 years ago, the ports were traditionally fighting over the business.. they finally joined together and formed an alliance. They do the management of the containers. The partnership is a strong one and lets us compete on a global scale with other regions.
Now they have a woman representing from teh alliance. She says awesome, thank youuuuu.
She says he stole her intro and she laughs, and says uh… yeah, we are an entity that just had our 10th birthday. 10 years partnership. W’ere about the 7th largest container gateway in the USA. In the north harbor were operate 4 Marine terminals here… on your left here is one - 46… some other are over at another island. We’ll talk about it and its history
WOW THIS IS WILD TO TAKE THIS TOUR!!!! I’m LOSING IT! I HAD NO CLUE WE WERE GONNA DO THIS hahaha. i thoguth it was gonna be about scenery hahaha.
90% of our trading is with Asia, our biggest partners with China and Japan. Korea and Indonesia too. Also we are the gateway for Alaska’s grocery shelves. When there are distruptions in supply chains, you see that quickly in disruptions for alaskans.
We are the gateway for Hawaii, too.
Main cargo commodities? Imports are furniture. Not because it’s a lot, but because it takes up a lot of space. It makes up over 25% of the import. Machine ports.
Also ‘RoRo” roll on, roll offf
Farm equipment, construction, sole port for Kia and Hyundai.
For exports, we are one of the largest, second largest agrictulral gateway in teh country. We are incredible y important for farmers.
We’re also famous for our frozen potatoes… your frenchfries in Korea come from here.
You’re seeing the Coast Guard vessels, we leased this to the coast guard.
These are polar ice cutters, this is a fun fact and they gave me the mic. They cut hte ice in Antarctica and cut it and look through. They’re looking to purchase more and expand here in Seattle.
alrightttt antartica. i’ve got my eyes on youuuuu. and my ice!!!
You’ll see these nets here, the salmon are going to try and get out, good luck buddy. Salmon doing their best to escape.
kinda sad way to say it…
So, infrastructure, you see more terminals up here. Our largest terminal over 150 acres. Anohter one across the waterway, its our most recently redeveloped. In the beginning of 2024, we’d just finished a half a billion dollar project. It has two births and the largest cranes on the West Coast. We like to call ourselves “big ship ready” - the biggest vessels are about 24,000 TEUs and we can almost accomodate them at t5. We have natural deep waterways here. It’s a good fit for the ports. But they do have to dredge al little further. Today we can accommodate to about 18-20,000 TEU’s. 15,000 or 16,000 is on the larger side.
If I’m going to say something you already know, I apoligize. TEU= twenty equivalent unit. We measure how many containers can fit on them. Most are 40 feet long, but we still use the 20ft unit measurement.
So the 15,000 TEU vessel means it can accommodate 7,500 containers.
This makes me think of living in shanghai and seeing so many container ships just nonstop, nonstop.
I’m just blown away by how close so much of this city is BY WATER… by car, it’s all so hard to get to. But I realize now this city has a really cool/tiny port system,
Now a drunk long guy looks to be going out onto the dock. I wanna go get a drink looking at him haha. A tea or a chai tea!!!
Their goal is to to work on emissions and have them under control by 2040. Okay I’m going downtstiars. Waht if the chips are free! Hahahaha. Let’s see. I’ll get a bag. Or two hahahah.
I got some green tea. They have trail mix. I may go get it… but I still have almonds, so that is hard to justify. They also have cookies, but… you know. Yeah right I want to go eat a cookie for “almost dinner”.
Omg the drunk looking 60yo guy just came back with three beers. One for his two friends and himself. These guys are all int eh fanciest outfits day drinking.
Now they’re got a slower speaking man up on teh mic and he’s saying words like “particularly” and “artihmatically” and he keeps using words in the millions, billions, square feet - he’s talking about lot of numbers nd talking about economic agent and economical environments.
We’ve lost 99% of the fish and wildlife in our bay.
I’m like wtf where are we going on this boat tour? Hahah deep into the shipping containers canal? I think so. I think we’re going on a full fledge shipping container delivery tour right now? Hahah. What in the world? What is this tourrrrhahaha.
Did anyone even know where this was heading? Did everyone know this is a port tour? I guess that makes sense. Okay - so now we’re going by an island that has the film studio on it. That place is really hard to get to - maybe you remember my old blogs about it. Truly truly not easy to get to. I’m pretty sure its one of the only places I literally gave up on attending.
Omg now the waves are so bumpy as we are running a sharp left turn. Really! Haha.
And there’s another boat going by us with LOTS of peopel on it. Like a tour. Do tehy give this tour of the logistical harbor all day long? I guess so, right? Wild. I never even knew of it. But of course you’d wanna see it. The shipping containers, teh back side of the stadiums, the view of downtown. Of course. Hahah. Who knew.
That last speaker was tough to keep up with, this next guy is such an actor.
He said this day, the ships are bigger and the containers are bigger, so we have fewer ships here modern day tahn we used to (but now I wanna look up and see how long this tour goes on… how late will I be to the next event 9or not?)
- Also now we’re finally by the film studio. It’s not quite as close as I thought - which makes more sense. For a second I was like WOW these are CLOSE.
The rest of the world is always upgrading techonlogy-wise and we fall behindthere.
Modernizing things and making it more efficient is the best thing for the economy. A clean port does a lot of business. You need to update and modernize your equipment. 20M in LA versus our 3.4M we have here. If we don’t make these investments and catch up we will fall further behind. Some think that’ll be okay…. But some terminals don’t have any business right now. I’d like to see much more business for everybody. The jobs associated with terminals are union jobs, family wage jobs, and good for our community.
What scares me is when people see an empty terminal, they see “ah ha! Let’s build housing there” but having this land is important. Once you lose it you never get it back.
Hes part of another alliance, helped formed with the mayor and council to be stewards fo the land. To have a competitive port, you need warehousing, transportation… our friends who want to bring goods to our port, the truckers have to do two runs a day to get it worth their while. But they can’t cause the traffic. We have a lot of work to do. We have this beautiful place to work, let’s se ewhat we can do.
Now we’re going by the movie studio - will they mention it ? He says he’s part of the community engagement team. There are a lot of communities
Outside of the movie studio is a pirate flag. weird? like a signal to passing boats. I never saw that before.
Immagrant regugee communities. It’s important for hte board as we move forward not to use do things responsibly for environment but also for the communities we preserve.
Okay a girl is up here on the stage to talk and she’s reading her speech off the phone.
She said she just recently joined - if you’re not familiar, we’ll tell you about a few neighborhoods and they have good food there. But lots of environmental justice issues
Anyway, I just wanna mention, its always the new people up on stage, even on a boat
Now she’s talking about hte community equity program - she’s really just reading her script off of her phone and it’s so unnatural cause she just reading the script.
It’s about the native Americans here. But.. yeah. She’s jsut reading a script and pretending to have enthusiasm about it, but it just sounds like someone reading a speech with concern.
This was born out of years of community, advocacy, and research… cumulative health impacts analysis. Co-authored - yeah this is so hard to listen to, I’ll zone out and look up how long this goes for. This boat tour is very dull.
See... this is the problem with boats. You get stuck on them. I have this happen to me all the time when I get on boats, I get sick of them. But, for some reason you still want to go on them. But yeah, I’m so bored on this boat hahaha. Maybe I need to go buy some food. Un-hanger myself (but I did see that the next event has food AND happy hour). I bet they’ll have salami and olives and cheese. Stuff liek that. Veggies. Let’s see. Maybe more? Idk? Chicken Wings? Hahaha. Let’s see
Yeah the schedule says it’s over in an hour. So I will only be 15 minutes late to the next event. Lets seeeee - lets see. I’m bored already. We still have an hour. I must go get myself some food. They had like… trail mix, gummy worms, a cookie, and chips. The chips were $2.50. Not crazy. But remember when chips used to be 50 cents a bag? Me too.
What should I eat? You guys - vote in the chat… maybe some chips? Or just wait.
I’ll go get a soda and some chips, hahaha. Right? Omg idk. That sounds the worst - like i’d just feel bad after. I will wait. I have water right now. And still some almonds.
WOW there is a MOUNTAIN of container ships here. Liek a mountain mountain mountain up here. All with air conditioners?
This girl’s speech is still going on still too - she’s talking about small businesses and some stuff.
Omg now the host says: yeah! Great job, that was awesome
-I feel like he’s overcompensating and can’t believe she just read off her phone lol.
And he has these sunglasses on that are super red/orange/yelow reflecting. Like futuristic/retro at the same time.
Now his buddy is coming up. This guy has a strong Spanish accent. He’s doing community engagement. (Hahah did he help plan their salsa night? cause they said they own that venue and there was a HUGE two night salsa night lately that was kinda random. I wonder if he was involved.)
He said he’s new to the board so don’t ask him hard questions.
Bro! You and everyone ever on stage.
But the work just mentioned is so important to the port. We want to set the example of how we want to invest the divided wealth of these waters
His background is not in ports, it’s in community engagement, organizing, environmental nonprofit for many years then got connected to the port.
see… random backgrounds (community, nonprofit) - and now suddenly on stage??? With these leadership jobs? idk. confusing trend.
And he says, okay now I’m going to read off my phone, I apologize. He says he doesnt’ have it memorized. Okay. Great, more speeches
Omg. He’s so hard to understand when he reads his script - suddenly his accent got double-time.
Okay - the project is called PMI. Comes out of an EPA grant, yes, it go approved, we got the money to do this project and um we have a big community engagement component. It’s a big project with alliances, workign together to drive low and zero emission fuels and technology - overarching goal is to accelerate the adoption of cleaner alternatives and a zero emission future for hte industry.
BTW this boat is just going so far down this canal. It’s like - where are we? Hahah we have no clue where we are and some of these buildings look so interesting. They’re not even saying what buildings we’re going by. I’m gonna go write it in the “questions” bowl - cause like, wtf people need to know what we’re sailing by, not just these infomercials. BRB.
They have a fish terminal for small boats and then larger vessels are at a different vessel.
Then finally, there are 720,500 metric tons harvested by port customers. That impact ripples out into the economy, goes overseas, or heads out to other markets.
Seafood is a major driver of the economy here today.
One more question… seafood is exported? Imported?
A lot of the fish that is caught is sent overseas, exported as a whole product, processed overthrew, and then reimported back into the US economy. And there are species we don’t harvest around here which are high demand.
Wow, intersting.
He says do you have any other questions - and some people raise their hands.
Maybe they’ll see my questions below.
Now they wanna talk about tariffs - which is funny cause I’m about to make a class about htem next week.
She says - great questions. I think I have a terrible answer for you. Not really… one thing about tariffs that have been tough is the unpredictability and uncertainty and how/when they are levied. When those policy changes are occuring/tweeted, teh amount. It’s difficult for us to make forecasts based on the carrots themselves. Instead,w e’ve been closely tracking the rates as they change and the impacts on our values.
What we have seen is shipping traditionally operates seasonally. iTs not a consistent year-round enterprise. And now we see those seasons are null and void for 2025. A lot of shippers rushed goods in the beginning of the year when we were unsure what tariffs would look like. We had one of the biggest Aprils we’d ever had. We’d had 14 months of consecutive growth that ended in May. And it’s slowly declining. September we condisdr to be peak shipping in shipping, but our September was down 22% for international imports over the year before. We just saw our 8th consecutive week of continual volume decline. Mostly what we hear is uncertainty.
Thats lead to a variety of businesses to make decisions, closing businesses, rushing goods -finding ways to absorb the margins.
We are one of the biggest agricultural gateways in teh country. Tarrifs always hit farm goods first.
There was a retaliator tariff on apples… it was our largest export by dollar value. We did over 2.2B in exports of apples, over 10,000 containers of apples. When those tariffs came into effect it went from 10,000 to 300 in one year (wow!!) as we forecast, we’re doing our best to bolster the agricultural community.
Wer’e doing the best we can to at least keep our local supply chain here fluid.
The guys says soy beans not he trains have gone to zero. So, think about that.
Its really rough on the farmers, but… I dont’ now how tis going to change if this keep escalating. Theres a Chinese made ship fee
I learned this from our members who are vessel owners.
Tehy have ships made from all over. They’ve been changing out their ships to not pay hte Chinese-made she fee but it will have an effect at some point.
Now someone says, “the grain terminal is the one terminal that is owned and operated by the port of Seattle”. He doesn’t know exactly what grain is going in and out right now.
Oh - the guys says, corn, soybeans, and lentils - a man says.
Now a woman asks what are the farmers doing regarding the soybeans?
Um… finding someplace to send them and probably with the slowdown… (it’s too hard to hear him) then they just say the answer is not good.
Now a girl in the front row is asking a question butit’s too hard to hear her.
So the next question - she says as a reply: covid showed all of our cracks along the supply chain in a way we’ve never seen before. It did it in a waterfall fashion, one thing after the other.
For hte uninitiated, the chassy is the thing you put the container on. Usualyl its pinned in and that keeps it on the truck when it hits the road.
One little point we didnt know could go wrong, we ran out of chassis. And then there were rules and restrictions on what could be stuck on terminal.
So what happened during covid, we had an overflow of containers, 96% capacity. People couldn’t even find containers which is very rare. WOW! True…. this makes sense.
So when I started din 2022, it was still filled but we were looking for chasties everywhere. But a few months after, it was completely full and then they may too many and we didnt even know where to store them. We just had thousands and thousands. Now there is an oversupply and any rules of zie don’t currently apply at our terminals.
omg embarassing and insane!!!
Next question: how is the port/partners tackling teh super fun (super fun?) site.
This guy speaking now is so quiet. Okay I’m sick of taking notes. I wanna stop hahaha.
OMG wait - we have 45 more minutes of this ship? I can’t believe it. This is slow. I wanna zone out and enjoy the view, okay? Okay. Let me get myself happier. Hahah. I’m too grumpy on this boat and I’m tired of learning about boat things from quiet people who are hard to hear. I’ll go enjoy the view and even sit down up front or outside or osmtihng. I wanna go enjoy this more. But this is really the problem with boats. You get stuck.
Next- after this, we go learn about drones, right? So. Let’s keep my energy rocking’
Then tonight I’ll probably stay up as late as I possibly can workign and making worksheets- till I pass out. Then up early in the morning for tomorrow. Whats tomorrow? Can’t remember off teh top of my head— wait, no I remember. It’s about seafood sustainability. Back by the water. Then after that, I’ll keep working downtown until it’s time to work. Or skip it.
Then tomorrow night - oh yeah! I may go dancing tomorrow night downtown and meet my daughter/ex at the musci event after working, hahaha. Let’s see. :). Then the next day we’re going to a trunk or treat event.
And I dont’ think I’ll get myself chips. Maybe. But I do wanna go enjoy this a bit more tourist-style. Then eat at the drone eventtntntntntnt. Talk to you at thereeee
DRONE EVENT NOTES:
soon - maybe? Or maybe not. This place was so cool. I hand wrote a lot of notes. But I do need to catch up on a few things. SO - i’ll get back to this… hopefully soon :) Maybe never. but the TLDR is that they’re making little drojnes that can go around and help out SWAT and police with negotiating and helping more people simply communicate in hostile sitautions, not police getting shot.
Its really cool/good customer service - if your drone gets broken, just send it back and they fix it.
None have weapons and thats their goal - never weapons (except breaking into windows) but then you go back and switch it back - and then you can communicate.
They said they used it in ukraine though to help liek travel through dark tunnels and stuff, etc.
and you can put custom stickers on them, which thepolice departments like a lot - and they’re workign on a new one thats super big and a 1M flying machine.
Overall Events Reviewed ELABORATED
EVENT 1 = OCEAN WEEK SHOWCASE:
Venue (2/5), ummm this place was like… unbelievably hard to find. Can I tell you? I’ve attended like 150+ events at this point. Maybe/probably more. And this place is hard to find. But then someone even said it was the blind leading the blind (cause they followed me to go in, suddenly) and i was insulted by that, i’m like wtf don’t call me blind! (though i was acting mute) they said that to a girl when we were all in the elevator and she was liek “are you guys looking for the kelp event?” and they three guys were like “its a bit of the blind leading the blind” and i thoguht to myself, “um… i’m not going to the “kelp event” I’m going to an “innovation expo” and it looked like people were upstairs, idk about you guys - but i’m definitely not DEAF” - but then later… yeah, it turns out it was the SAME event. Literally an event about kelp!? but online just advertised as an ‘innovation showcase’.
Food (3/5), well, when i first got there i thought there was NO FOOD AT ALL. So then the simple slice of “kelp pita with kelp cheese” was exactly what I wanted to eat. Next, the chocolate covered kelp was welcomed. He gave me 3 pieces. And then the guy who started a super famous soup restaurant chain here, and then sold it to his employees. Now he runs a kelp farm and wants to open a new business with lots of kelp and salmon stuff. Even kelp soup. So he and I talked a long while and he said he wants to let you even wrap your feet in kelp while you sit and eat the kelp stuff, right at pike place. I told him it’d be iconic. He said he’s goign to make it happen. His food as amazing - but I only got two tiny bites. One was a cracker with seasoning. One was a cracker with salmon on it. So, I told him he’s GOTTA open a restaurant hahha. SO i can eat more of this. (And he had kelp soup, too - but only one bowl left and I didnt wanna take it all… the next event on the cruise was promising lite snacks.) So, the kelp nibblets held me over temporarily. And I had almonds in my bag.
Speaker Content (2/5), eh. i didnt really talk to much of anyone except a chef who eventualyl helped me realize this was a kelp themed event. And then the owner of the restaurant chain. Besides that… one guy was kinda-good at explaining his business, but then he had to repeat a few things… idk. not amazing, but also, I was still trying to wrap my feet in kelp, you know? Metaphorically. And it was over before it started for me, since I had to get going to the next event on a boat.
Networking (1.9) - well the welcomer was super funny and kind. then she helped me find the bathroom so i freshened up and then entered through the back - and then i was just like mid-evnet… so, then suddenly I found the food in the back, but tehn thehy were like “this is kelp blah blah” and i was like, uh? okay? —- and finally the chef helped me understand that this is a kelp event. So, I talked to him kinda, and then I talked to the owner of that soon-to-be/hopefully restaurant. So, you know… not bad.
Likeliness to Return (2/5)
EVENT 2 = CRUISE FOR OCEAN WEEK:
Venue (3/5), i’ve taken our local ferries quite often, so I thought it’d be similar to that. This was kinda similar to that, but more like the express ferry. And it was just like seating that revolved around a bar. So it triggered everyone’s inner-alcoholic to be cool about drinking on a boat. Some people had 3 or 4 drinks during this 1.5 hour trip. There were liek 4 or 5 talks first, then just conversation for the second half. But I was like, geeze guys. Its 2:45 on a Thursday. But… you know, I get it. Its pushed on us. Especially the older crowd. My age… we’re too poor now. Though, a few people my age had a drink or two, talkign about how their boyfriend dint wanna wear a certain costume (beign a chicken and the ‘kerna'l’ or howeer the heck you spell that) so instead he is going to be like idk what and she will be a kraken - lol). The older men were slamming the drinks, from what I saw. It’s a matter of income ignorance, right? hahah idk. I just wanted to alliterate. I only semi-thoguht that sentence through and dont wanna commit to it too much, but i’ll leave it. Sounds good.
Food (1.9/5), it was advertised they’d have lite snacks and drinks. But there were only complimentary drinks. Not snacks. This felt like misleading advertising and I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t want to waste money on food that I don’t even eat. I’m never going to eat a bag of potato chips unless its free and there are no other choices… or idk, its extremely random. But I don’t want to spend money just to put that into my body. No way, I’ll wait. And every choice of food they had was ridiculous. So unnutritious (cookies, gummy worms, nerd gummy ball rip-offs, old trail mix… I would have picked the old trail mix, but I had almonds with me).
Speaker Content (2.9/5), I mean, overall it was pretty good (except one guy was really speaking so mathematically as if he needed a powerpoint) but I also felt they totally missed opportunities to talk about the different things we were traveling by. Like Hollywood-level film studios, etc. You know? This city need to cross-promote itself. And I wrote a comment about that in the questions basket, they even said “Ask any questions you’d like, ask away” about the questions basket. Then… guess what? I put it in “too late” or whatever, and they threw it away. Even though they were taking lots and lots of questions after and talking a while after. Someone threw it away, literally, cause when I looked later my question that had been in the basket - the only one - was gone. Rude. So… my conclusion is maybe even THEY don’t know what the buildings were that we’re floating by, and they felt embarrassed - so just threw it away. That’s a shame, too. This city needs more interconnection and understanding. ESPEICALLY IF THEY DO THAT CRUISE EVERY DAY - besta’ be mentioning it, right?! gimme a BREAK y’all. Get jiggy with it already.
Networking (1/5), No it wasn’t embraced at all. I talked to literally on one. It was forgotten… to help people connect. Instead, it was just mostly people drinking, listening, or looking at the water. Together but alone.
Likeliness to Return (3/5), I would like to look at more maps of the area and understand the shipping yards better. I literally had no clue that’s what we were going to be touring, so I’d return to understand that better and learn more of how things work. That’s super interesting. Also, I’d prepare myself with more food. So… okay hahahah, i first voted this a 3/5 cause I was really grumpy after/during. But now I write this the next day - we’ll give it an official 5/5… i’ll just prepare better next time.
EVENT 3 = DRONE DEMO:
Venue (5/5), amazing place!! amazing tour. i was blown away like 100% by whats going on just like ‘right down the street’ metaphorically.
Food (3.5/5), yeah i was extremely happy to finally be fed… but, idk, i think pizza is overrated and especially overpriced pizza. But still, tehy had enough for everyone - more than enough. And I ate a lot.
Speaker Content (4/5), It was super interesting - but not enough basics about drones. However, everyone there except me worked in the drone/design field, so they knew all of the terminology.
Networking (3/5), Actually i talked to two people who were nice. one guy talked to me for quite a while but then suddenly lost interest. Even later when he made a joke at me about how i was writing lyrics, i said no i have a blog and he goes (oh, i’m toast) and then walked away. it kinda hurt my feelings, too. i guess he knows he’s ingenuine? so, yeah. I thought he sincerely liked me, but he said he worked in sales. And at one point we suddenly stopped talking, which surprised me? So… then I realized - oh. Hm. He’s a sales guy? And he was just seeing if he coudl seell me something or something? idk. We talked like 20 minutes straight then suddenly stopped. Then, yeah he said that later. Hm. —- the other person I met was nice. She said that she’d never seen anyone at any of these events before not in the industry. And I told her, oh yeah. I go to events all the time. She questioned me about how I do it, I explaiend it to her how i look at lots of websites and sometimes get on different newsletter lists because of it… and then just plan ahead with my calendar haha. She was nice :).
She really wanted me to join them drinking after at a networking at a bar, but, i just didn’t want to.
And, I’ll say one more thing too. One guy there was so handsome - maybe even the most handsome there - but he had too low of confidence (for arguably understandable reasons I won’t get into - but i’ve seen him at two events now - both times thought he was cute hahaha - but also, he said something this time that made me realize he has a defense (he kept offering favors widely and loudly), and i noticed something about him, physically, too that makes sense why he’s a defensive in general). But, it doesn’t matter who you are or what’s your reason, that’s the world we’re living in that you have to realize. We don’t believe that we, ourselves, are good enough - cause we’re conditioned not to. And we don’t trust in ourselves. And push other things in front of us - flashy fashion or items or materials… cause we’ve been hurt and rejected too many times. So we pile on more and more defense as adults. It’s part of why I got rid of makeup… my car, even now I’m admitting to going on food stamps (though, I’m realizing its INSANELY strategic. and i feel i’m okay to - cause, i really did spend 6 figures in taxes the past few years!! not understanding TAX CODES AND OPPORTUNITEIS. you see? and i still hardly do, but i get how to minimize my expenses better!!! and i’m trying my best, so yeah - there are things that cn help you. we just need more education and less barriers (or a better system). Food banks are nuts, too. You can get a $30 whole foods pumpkin cheesecake for free… alongside like a whole lot of other stuff? And just make a reservation!? in and out in 10 minutes??? For free. Its insane. This system exists right now. If your money is tight, you can spend $0 on food (AND CLOTHES) and build your own business. its so genius for anyone 18+, whatever. Especially the starving artist freelance startup bootsrapper. Just “benefits” has a bad reputation, (and the peopel not using it are confused/mad - rightfully so) its all really complicated, you know? But… Its mindsets and strategizing in this system, thats like. Really teh reality right now - i’m trying to figure it all out. And btw - “BENEFITS” the word always makes me think of this dorky song that i just randomly heard one time and i dont even know this tv show but it get stuc in your head and its so funny (although it did NOT age super well in someee ways. hahah, but once you get into the song, its great and you can’t deny it) - and i think if more companies made commericals like this sorta home-made vibe again (but truly!!! how?? you now), its primo. BENNIGAN’Z RAP (CLICK HERE)
Likeliness to Return (5/5): duh! I knew nothing - so attending again would totally help you learn more. Even rehearing that entire tour (while also not being confused about the sales guy hahahaha) that’d make me learn more, but also I was so tired after 3 events all day. you know? But it was an awesome tour and I learned so much. 3D printer farms! Building things for SWAT officers, etc. So cool!
I also wrote this song for my students/everyone. It’s based on a lot I’ve leraned about the shipping industry just over the years and the role we have to take care of each other - especially those most vulnerable who can’t speak up for their lives. As we treat them like numbers. I cried many, many times making this. When I wrote the lyrics, I just wrote them about trade… but then when I came up with the images and then video, I realized what it could become. Its a super sad song, to be honest, and then it ends so dramatically, too. The way Ai was making these videos surprised me, but its really good and powerful. As I said, especially the ending. Hope we can keep building a better future. Sincerely, Kelly
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
