This month, we embarked on something new for Mustard Lane...a solo gig in a different country!
Now, ML provides staff in Canada, so we've been international for a while. But Mexico was certainly uncharted territory!
We had a client inquiring for an Emcee/Host who would be able to attend an event at a resort in Cabo, right after the July 4th weekend. While this initially felt like a large request, our internal team thought, "Hey, we've got lots of fantastic people who could do this! ...why not?!"
Cabo, here we come!
After discussing the client's needs, we were able to reach out to some lovely Laners who fit the description and gauge their interest and availability. We worked with the client to figure out which Laner would ultimately be the best fit - and landed on the stellar, Matt!
Introducing our Cabo Emcee...Matt! He gave us the inside scoop...
So…tell us…what exactly was the gig?!
The gig was a tandem act of host, emcee, comedian and unlicensed tour guide for a select group of top-tier Huuuge Games mobile subscribers. I did everything from welcome the VIPs to the Secrets Resort in Cabo, to award all 100-something participants iPads after an intensive focus group session as part of my own fantasy Oprah moment, to offer color commentary for a piñata-bashing at a goodbye dinner on a nearby farm. It was wild and colorful and unpredictable and I got to laugh and joke through the whole thing -- it was great.
What were some of your duties and responsibilities as a Cabo Emcee extraordinaire?
To distill many disparate parts, my duties boiled down to making the guests feel welcome both on the hotel property and off, and to serve as a familiar face with whom they could talk and joke or share concerns across the trip. I formally met them at a welcome dinner, where I offered opening remarks and a bit of standup comedy, guided them through a focus group which found them sharing personal experiences and insights with Huuuge programmers and led them on off-site trips to a local glass-blowing shop, tequila wholesaler and around the famous El Arco rock formation in a yacht.
Favorite part of the gig…go!
I appreciated the off-the-clock moments in which guests felt comfortable enough to approach me at the pool or over cups of coffee at the hotel cafe and tell me about themselves. I listened to stories about triumphs over debilitating illnesses, coping with grief after the deaths of spouses and how Huuuge helped some guests learn how to more successfully socialize, a skill that hadn't historically been natural to a handful of attendees. It wasn't a group or community that I totally understood before the trip, and those rawer, off-script moments made me feel all the more connected to its members. By the last day, I felt totally welcomed into their world, which made the job all the more fulfilling and, frankly, easier.
Favorite part of the trip as a whole…go!
A guest said to me very simply as I was leaving the property: "Let's go to Jamaica next year!" as if I were a presumed part of the follow-up trip's machinery. It made me feel like I had done my job well and had successfully struck the friendly rapport I'd intended to strike. Also: mango margaritas.
How was the travel? …traveling internationally can be tricky…!
I'm so grateful that Mustard Lane and the event's production team organized my flights and shuttles to and from the hotel, and while the flight to Cabo was pretty seamless, the return trip was certainly...eventful. To make a long story short, and after a proverbial tornado of broken air conditioners, stalled engines and an especially apologetic pilot, I landed at JFK about eight hours after I was supposed to. But hey, at least the journey amounted to a gift voucher from JetBlue to address the trouble. Maybe I can put it toward my next Mexican adventure...
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