Agile Project Management of Going to the Taylor Swift Concert – Part 2

Click Here to See Part 1 of Agile Project Management of Going to the Taylor Swift concert.

Take the Pokey or Swiftie Survey

We made it to Vegas late Thursday night, with plenty of time to get acclimated to the whole scene before the concert on Saturday night. Several days before we got there, our ring leader, the one who spearheaded this whole adventure, informed us we’d be leaving at 2:30 Saturday afternoon from the hotel as she had secured us the VIP package and we had to be there ready to go in by 3:30. Taylor Swift was not set to go on until 8 PM. My first reaction was “what is she crazy?”  What are we going to do for four and a half hours BEFORE the event is even set to start?  In hindsight, I should have paid attention to that first response (which I will address in tomorrow’s blog post).

We had three more user stories to play out to enjoy our time in Vegas and at the concert:

User Story 1 – Do other fun things while in Vegas, around the remote work schedules.

User Story 2 – Pace ourselves so we can enjoy the concert – we can always come back to do other fun things in Vegas.

User Story 3 – Make sure we bring everything we need for being at the Concert stadium for eight hours from 3:30 PM to 11;30 PM with 60,000 other people.

Here is how we met the requirements of the user stories:

Iteration 4 – Extra Activities – Because of the remote work schedules and divergent interests, not all of us participated in all of the extra activities. The epic adventure queen wanted to go swimming in the lazy river at the hotel’s beach pavilion. I was a bit hesitant to participate in this activity since the outdoor temperature was 59 degrees and the water was only 70 degrees. But her sister was going to be busy with her zoom staff meeting so I put on my “this is fun, let’s do it” attitude and joined her. Plus I had been doing a virtual “Conquer Challenge” of swimming the English channel and figured it was still warmer than actually swimming in the English Channel. It was a total blast!  We had the whole lazy river to ourselves.  There were only a few folks out there – they were all bundled up in warm clothes getting some sun on the lounge chairs. Living in Alaska does have some advantages – the ability to be comfortable in the cold.

The next thing on the adventure hound’s list was to visit the immersive art exhibit at Area 15 called “OmegaMart by Meow Wolf.” I kind of wished I had planned a virtual staff meeting and had a reason to miss this. Next time, I’m going to study what the immersive art exhibit is all about, ahead of time. Never having done acid, I imagined this is what being on acid would be like going to a Quik Mart, combined with a dystopian industrial make-work control the masses scene. To say “I didn’t get it” is the understatement of the century.

Iteration 5 – Show Time Prep – I decided several days before leaving for Vegas (shortly after finding out the kids were planning on being at the stadium for 8 hours) that I would go along with what they had planned and do so in good humor. It was after all an adventure I had joined in on to spend time with them. I realized I had already done other numerous crazy events akin to this and lived to laugh about it. They got tired of hearing about my 1979 Yale Bowl concert extravaganza where we had to line up at 6 AM for general infield admission at 10 AM for that day-long event (in the blazing hot sun). I could handle 8 hours at the Allegiant Stadium for Taylor Swift.

We needed to be prepared for modern-day event security though and everything needed to be in see-through bags. What a shift from seeing how many different things you could sneak into the infield back in 1979. We also needed to bring phone chargers as what else were we going to do to entertain ourselves for the five hours NOTHING was going on in the stadium. (Granted we did not have smartphones for entertainment back in 1979 and did just fine entertaining ourselves during that tedium).

The kids have this thing where they go and get their hair done right before big events. I happily opted out of that – with the little hair I did have left from my effort to be “stylish” for the concert – I’m not sure what else could be done to it. So, I got to take a luxurious nap. Being a Taylor Swift event, there were thousands of “let’s get big hairdo” types doing the same thing at the same time in Vegas. They were glad they had scheduled their glam appointments well in advance.

Iteration 6 – The Stadium  Per the plan, we got to the stadium in ample time to wait in line to get into the stadium at 3:30 for the “VIP” experience.  I am pretty sure I put as much time into researching the “VIP” experience as the event planners spent in creating it. That is no time. From what I could tell, the only thing the VIP package got for you was the opportunity to be corralled in a small space with no seating for over an hour before being allowed to go to our seats. Granted they were serving very expensive alcohol and had a few food stands open, but we were elbow to elbow with the other VIP experience folks wondering if this was all there was to the VIP experience. The idle chit-chat with strangers we would likely never see again, the numbing foot pain from standing on concrete floors with no padding for an extended period of time, were vaguely reminiscent of hosting a booth at a trade show.

The one benefit of spending all that idle time standing around on the concrete floor, was when we did finally get to our seats, they were a godsend. The friend who had gotten the tickets managed to get seats 19 rows back from the stage. What they fail to mention about these “premium” seats – they are not premium seats at all but folding chairs purchased from the lowest bidder. They also zip tie the seats together so they can squeeze more people in – and the seats are about 2/3 the size of the seats in the stands. The kids are tired of hearing me complain about the lame furniture at most VRBO’s – at least now, I have a benchmark of something worse. These chairs we were going to spend the next 7 hours in were divine compared to standing on the concrete floor. It’s all in context.

A Sample of the Amazing Outfits Worn by the ‘Swifties

Iteration 7 – The Show – What an amazing life experience. About half the people attending were seriously decked out “Swifties.” I’ve never seen so much glitter and glam in one place. They were having the time of their lives. I think the main purpose of the two opening bands was to prep for the extremeness of the bass as it made all my major organs and big muscles reverb. It was a full-body experience. I also got to see just why it was such a good idea my daughter had gotten all of us earplugs – even being hearing challenged, I needed these.

The tech tricks and special effects of the show were phenomenal. We were all fitted with little wristbands that we had to pull out a tab to activate. These were tied into a mesh network that could light up different sections of the stadium with all the same blinking colors – reds in some sections, blues in others, making shapes, patterns, and snaking different effects through the stadium. It was fun being part of the show this way. Way different than the beach balls flying all around the Yale Bowl during the Beach Boys show in 1979.

I’ve been to a number of broadway plays, live theater, and elaborate sets – but this was something way beyond any of that. Supposedly 370 people travel with this show and each stadium supplies over 3000 people to support the event. The sets, choreography, special effects, and pyrotechnics went off like clockwork – and they do this every week all over the country. Talk about project management!

The three-hour show went by in a flash. It was incredibly captivating. Taylor Swift is a phenomenal entertainer, a great storyteller, and overall it’s obvious why the fans crashed the Ticket Master System. Even though I’m in the oldest and smallest demographic, being part of that show with my kids, I feel 20 years younger.

Tomorrow’s blog post is going to be an Agile Retrospective of the whole experience.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CCPM, RYT

Chief Cheetah, www.cheetahlearning.com

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