other duties as assigned

Performance Anxiety Kirsten Olean, CMP, CAE Director of Meetings, Association of American Medical Colleges T

here was an actress who had a theatrical show that translated to issues that were important to our

audience, so we decided instead of hav- ing a keynote address, we were going to have her do a performance piece. About two days before the actress

was due to arrive — we were already on-site at the meeting — she asked to switch from the luxury hotel she’d originally requested to another luxury hotel. Neither one was in our block. That was when we really started to go, huh, I think she’s going to be a little more

112 PCMA CONVENE JULY 2013

high-maintenance than we thought. When she gets to the convention

center and she sees her dressing room, it was, “You know, it’s really dry in here.” She’s going to need a humidifier. She’s going to need a full-length mirror. She drinks a special drink. I had to go to one of my hotels I was staying in and be like,

“Can I get a humidifier and a full-length mirror? I promise I’ll bring it back in two days.” I got one of my AV guys to carry the mirror for me, and I carried the humidifier over at six o’clock in the morning on the day of the performance.

And then she required no inter-

ruption and complete silence an hour before her performance. So, you know, you’re backstage in a convention center, and people are trying to roll carts that are full of dishes. And we literally ended up putting up a piece of yellow caution tape across the hallway in the back of the convention center to try to stop that from rolling through. If I hadn’t known how good she was

and how great her performance was going to be, I think it would have actu- ally been much more frustrating.

. PCMA.ORG

ILLUSTRATION BY GRAHAM ROUMIEU