In February, my company held a conference in San Francisco. I am responsible for designing and delivering the conference and the audience is the VP population of my employer. There are 130 VPs who come from all over the world so the conference is expensive and important - in other words, it's a risky part of my work responsibilities each year.
This year for a "give-away" for the participants of the conference we ordered beautiful crystal three-sided pyramids that could act as a paperweight - each side had a graphic from the conference to reinforce the key conference messages constantly for participants. The pyramids are about five inches tall and weigh four pounds each. The top of the pyramid and each corner of the base are very sharp points. When we got the mock-up several weeks before the conference we joked that in addition to reinforcing learning the pyramids could be used as a deadly weapon.
At the end of the three day conference most of the pyramids were left on the tables in the conference room. Several of the participants said that they did not check bags when flying and that they did not think that Homeland Security would allow the heavy, sharp pyramids on board planes - especially the international flights. We collected and shipped the left behind pyramids back to the office. Counting the pyramids we knew that some people actually took theirs and more were missing than could be accounted for by our California VPs who may have driven to the conference. So we wondered how Homeland Security treated the pyramids of those VPs who had them in the carry-on luggage.
Can you imagine my surprise when I found that Homeland Security allowed the pyramids on the flight in carry-on bags. Our VPs fly first or business class, so the sharp, heavy, deadly pyramids were allowed in the front of the planes. As a matter of fact, there were six of the pointed projectiles on the late afternoon flight to Austin from San Jose. One VP said that he asked the guard if it was okay and the guy actually said, "There are no restrictions against 'these' in our rules." Wait, more than three ounces of shampoo - NO WAY! but a four pound, sharp pointed, crystal pyramid is safe cause no one thought to spell that kind of thing out in the rules??? I know I'm repeating myself but this does not make me feel more secure traveling...
This year for a "give-away" for the participants of the conference we ordered beautiful crystal three-sided pyramids that could act as a paperweight - each side had a graphic from the conference to reinforce the key conference messages constantly for participants. The pyramids are about five inches tall and weigh four pounds each. The top of the pyramid and each corner of the base are very sharp points. When we got the mock-up several weeks before the conference we joked that in addition to reinforcing learning the pyramids could be used as a deadly weapon.
At the end of the three day conference most of the pyramids were left on the tables in the conference room. Several of the participants said that they did not check bags when flying and that they did not think that Homeland Security would allow the heavy, sharp pyramids on board planes - especially the international flights. We collected and shipped the left behind pyramids back to the office. Counting the pyramids we knew that some people actually took theirs and more were missing than could be accounted for by our California VPs who may have driven to the conference. So we wondered how Homeland Security treated the pyramids of those VPs who had them in the carry-on luggage.
Can you imagine my surprise when I found that Homeland Security allowed the pyramids on the flight in carry-on bags. Our VPs fly first or business class, so the sharp, heavy, deadly pyramids were allowed in the front of the planes. As a matter of fact, there were six of the pointed projectiles on the late afternoon flight to Austin from San Jose. One VP said that he asked the guard if it was okay and the guy actually said, "There are no restrictions against 'these' in our rules." Wait, more than three ounces of shampoo - NO WAY! but a four pound, sharp pointed, crystal pyramid is safe cause no one thought to spell that kind of thing out in the rules??? I know I'm repeating myself but this does not make me feel more secure traveling...
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