This Week In GigMasters

I spent this weekend up at my parent's house in New Hampshire. As we often do when I'm up there, my father and I went mountain climbing. During the more strenuous parts of the hike, there's often not a lot of talking going on, so it was a good opportunity to let my mind wander on a variety of topics. I had the usual thought of "wow, I'm so impressed my Dad is still climbing at age 79!" Then as lunch time approached, my mind started turning to thoughts of food. I gave myself hypothetical’s such as "If I had to choose to have one final meal in my life, what would it be?" Lobster maybe? Filet Mignon? Not sure. I moved on from that and of course started thinking about the business (GigMasters) and what was in store for the week ahead.

This week, as with every week, we have a lot going on. Rick and Alfred, our sales wizards, are busy preparing for a trade show they're going to at the end of this month. They're getting lots of excellent help from Marissa, our one-woman marketing department. I have to say I'm very excited that GigMasters is going to start attending more of these tradeshows. We've talked about it for many years, and its finally happening. It will be a great opportunity to meet some of the performers face to face.

Our developers David, Beth and Alexis are busy coding away on some of our bigger projects. The optional downloadable contracts project is one that I'm particularly excited about. The tricky part is handling cancellations. The wording needs to vary based on many factors including 1) whether its the performer or the client doing the cancelling 2) whether a deposit has been paid 3) whether the deposit is refundable or non-refundable and 4) how soon before the event date is the cancellation taking place. Like so many things, its a delicate balancing act -- we're trying to build in maximum flexibility for the performers while still offering basic protections to the clients - many of who are booking for the first time. Tech is getting key guidance on this project from Erin, who besides her official role as customer service manager, plays a key role in product development. And of course our entertainment lawyer Art has been quite involved from the very beginning.

Our customer service reps are super busy. In addition to answering all the emails, phone calls and live chats, they're very involved on the social networking front. Last week Amy posted an excellent entry on tipping etiquette and this week she's put together one about the top 10 songs for a block party. Kelly and Victoria helped launch our new MySpace page last week so this week they're busy working out the kinks and updating the content. Sara is spearheading a performer jingle contest (boy I can not WAIT to hear some of those entries!) She's working with one of designers to create the HTML pages. Hopefully there will be more on that in the near future.

Another project that's underway which I'm pretty psyched about is a Performer Spotlight section that will be on the homepage of our website. Our thought is that each day we will spotlight one of our 5-star performers who has been with us for a long time. They will appear on the homepage the day of their anniversary. If 2 performers have an anniversary on the same date, then we'll go with the one who has been with us longer. Membership has its privileges.

So as you can see, I had plenty to think about on the hike. It sure made the time go fast. Before you know it we were on the top of the mountain. I did finally decide the answer to my hypothetical question - what would my last meal be - I decided on blackened catfish fajitas. I had it one time at my favorite restaurant - the Border Cafe, and I've never forgotten it. But as I opened my knapsack on the mountain top, I had to settle for a hard boiled egg, a pear and some cookies. I can't complain though - I was famished and it all tasted delicious.