What a week! More like a week and a half, but still, what a week! I just got back from spending nine days in Orlando, FL, for our annual trade show conference, NATE UNITE. It was my first time attending and working the show, and even though I am completely exhausted, it was a fantastic trip. 

Admittedly, before we left, I was getting pretty nervous about it. There are so many details that go into this show, I was nervous I would mess something up. Not to mention, nine days away for work feels like a really long time! But we have an amazing team at NATE, and the whole event went off with very few hiccups. 

We left a week ago Thursday, and after a full day of travel, we spent the next two days just prepping things for the conference. Stuffing bags, putting name badges together, unloading the dozens of boxes we shipped, and familiarizing ourselves with the conference center – the place was HUGE! – it was a lot of work. 

Sunday was a day full of meetings, but it was so nice to finally meet some of the people I’ve been working with on committees in person. I made a lot of connections this week, and I really enjoyed getting to know people further. 

Monday was the big day for me. Back in October or November, when I became the Manager of Wireless Industry Network (WIN), I was put in charge of our NATE WIN Network. In short, we have 48 State Liaisons, 8 Regional Ambassadors, and 5 International Ambassadors. These folks help to spread the word of NATE in their own state or region, or even in a different country. There’s a lot of them! We had our WIN meeting at the conference Monday, and it was my first time running an in person meeting that large. Of the almost 60 WIN people, 45 of them were able to make it to the conference, which was amazing. 

I was pretty nervous to run the meeting, but this group of people were so wonderful. They were welcoming and friendly, and it didn’t take long at all for my nerves to go away. And we had some great discussion to boot. I’m very excited to work with them further! 

Also on Monday, we had our NATE Business meeting, where the chairperson of all of our standing committees got up in front of the crowd to give a run down of what was going on in their said committee. Any NATE member could attend this meeting, and our Board of Directors were also all lined up in this meeting as well. And guess who had to get up in front of all of them to give the WIN update?? Me! Oh my goodness, I was even more nervous for this one. Our Board members are all very nice, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a little intimidating to get up in front of them to speak. But I think it went well, and a couple Board members came up to me afterward and said I did a good job, so can’t complain about that! 

Tuesday was our longest day. We started bright and early at 5:30 in the morning to put on the Women of NATE 5K. I was running it instead of working it, so I might have had more fun than some of the others. 😇 It was a beautiful morning for a run! Kind of humid, but still way better than running in a blizzard back home! I was the second female to cross the finish line which was a cherry on top! 

After running and cleaning up, I spent most of my day in the Information Lounge, answering questions and running errands if need be. We did have our Keynote Luncheon this day with guest speaker, Mike Massimino. If you don’t know who that is, go look him up! He’s a former astronaut and he played himself on the Big Bang Theory. He’s also the first man to tweet in space, which is cool! His speech was awesome, and he seems like a genuinely cool dude. I also was getting a bagel after running that morning, and guess who asked to share a toaster with me!? Mike Massimino! I was a little starstruck, but he was very polite as we chatted a bit around the toaster. 

Our Exhibition hall also opened on Tuesday, we had almost 200 exhibitors, and walking through that hall was just amazing. It blew my mind! The tower industry is seriously super cool, and if you ever get the chance to come to one of our shows, I highly recommend it. And if you’re looking to get into this line of work, there’s no better way to see what goes on at these companies and meet the people behind the scenes. 

Wednesday was about the same as Tuesday, minus the run and Mike Massimino. My feet were getting sore at this point in the week, but I was still having a good time. I was back inside the exhibit hall later that day and one of our member companies asked if I wanted to try a virtual climb. I wasn’t too thrilled about it as I am very afraid of heights, but he convinced me to give it a whirl. While I’ll admit it was very cool, I was hanging on to that pole for dear life – it felt so real!! I give mad props to those tower climbers, as it is definitely not something I could do for a living. 

Thursday was our Tower Family Foundation (TFF) Golf event fundraiser. It was a very early start, but it was pretty easy once all the golfers were registered. I got to spend most of the morning supervising the hole in one contest hole. Someone did get a hole in one but not at that hole – still impressive though! It was a nice hot day to be out on the course raising money for a good cause. Together, the golf committee raised $125,000 for tower climbers who are either seriously injured, or perish on a climb.

If you’re ever looking to donate to a worthy cause, this is it. Tower climbing can be extremely dangerous, but it is basically essential in today’s world in order to have internet or cell service. We want these men and women to be safe, but if something does happen, we want to make sure they’re taken care of as well. Overall, it was a day well spent!

Like I said, it was a very long, exhausting nine days, but it was so much fun. I’m ready to go sleep for the next 48 hours, and then show up to work on Monday and start prepping for next year’s show already. 

Can’t wait!! 

Until next time! 🙂 

Megan Reiffenberge