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A Crazy Day in Cincinnati


Felipe and I were really excited for our stay in Cincinnati because we had booked a 4-star hotel through Hotwire in the heart of downtown. I freaked out slightly on the ride there because I was nervous about the age required to check-in. Luckily, those nerves proved unneeded and we were able to get our room with no problem.

That calm, however, didn’t last. Felipe’s work permit had arrived in Princeton the previous day, so there was a debate on how best to get it to the Midwest. Overnight shipping was cheaper, but there was a chance that the permit could get lost and the entire process to get it would need to begin again, an exceptionally disastrous situation. The other option was for Felipe to fly to Princeton from Cincinnati, pick up the permit, and then fly directly to Indianapolis. Obviously, this plan would be much more expensive, not to mention seemingly wasteful of time, but it would definitely secure the permit.

Eventually, the risk of losing the permit outweighed the cost of Felipe spending a full day traveling, so off he went. By the time I woke up the next morning, Felipe had headed off to the airport, ready to spend less than a quarter a day in New Jersey before heading back. (He successfully picked up his work permit and arrived at our Indianapolis AirBnB at 4 in the morning the next day)

I took our two meetings by myself before heading straight to Indianapolis. Something that we realized as we tried to schedule meetings before the summer is that setting the dates in cities is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We spent a single day in Cincinnati despite the numerous Fortune 500 companies there because previous years hadn’t had much success there. However, by only scheduling one day in the city, we gave such a tight window that it was less likely that the people we reached out to would be available.

This scheduling dilemma is significant for the Midwest team because we visit over 10 cities every year. This year, we will be spending about 5 weeks in Chicago due to the breakout trip we are organizing there, so the question was how to best distribute the rest of our time. Previous years were influential on our decision-making, and I think it worked out fine in the end, but I think the Midwest team’s travels should vary a lot every year. I personally think that future years should try to spend more time in some of these cities and try and change the success rate in certain destinations, particularly Cincinnati and Minneapolis.

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