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BeeBad\'s Magical Mystery Lunch Bunch Tour... Part II
Thanx to jacketsrule for putting the number of people who attended the Lunch Bunch Monday night into perspective... I had never attended but had heard that Coach O'Leary would regularly draw 500 for his "Lunches With George" with many turned away so that is about what I expected attendance-wise. At any rate I would highly recommend the Lunch Bunch for anyone who can get away from work for a couple hours... Well run, nice setting, good people, a very positive experience....
I entered the room where gailey would be speaking and was immediately met by a very nice lady at a table in the front.. She said there would be a raffle for some items, gave me a ticket & told me to feel free to sit wherever, which was great 'cause I had my eye on a table about 10 feet from the podium.. It was about 11:25 at this point, about 15 people there so far.. I had come there with the thought of being open-minded and was interested to see how my opinions & opinions of others that I had read here on the boards matched with what I observed...
People were entering, many by themselves & easily mingling & obtaining seats... A fair amount seemed to know people there, probably an equal amount that didn't.. The demographics tended to lean towards a 45+ crowd, grecian formula probably could've made their monthly quota there ... Was surprised that there weren't more young people in attendance.. (20s & 30s)
A couple gentlemen stopped by the table I was at and asked if they could join me.. We quickly engaged in conversation regarding the season... I asked how long they thought gailey would speak, they both agreed that he doesn't appear to enjoy speaking to groups too much & it would probably be 5-10 minutes or so... Without my prompting 1 of the gentlemen indicated he thought it would be a challenging year & that if the first half of the season didn't go well there just may be a coaching change...
An elderly bearded gentlemen who looked very much like many of the engineers that I had done business with for so many years and had very enjoyable business relationships with took the podium to make a few announcements.. He mentioned that gailey had arrived and I turned to see him standing in the back of the room.. At this point he made the announcement & gailey headed to the podium... As he moved toward the front of the room I felt it would've been a nice touch to play the GT fight song over the sound system, perhaps they will consider that for future speakers...
Some people jumped to their feet immediately & started clapping, myself included, some of the elderly gentelemen struggling to their feet a few seconds later.. The applause was warm altho contained... Similar to what I've observed at sales meetings when the "salesman of the month" is called to the podium to accept his/her award... Was surprised to hear no vocal encouragement, no "Go Get 'em Chans" like we often see at the bottom of posts after a new recruit has just verballed....
He took the podium & immediately started speaking, with convinction he said, "We're gonna surprise a lot of people this year"... Mind reading not being one of my skills, I wondered if others were thinking what I was... Let's hope this year is a postive surprise... He continued to speak at this point & stumbled a little bit, immediately confirming what I had heard about his speaking skills...
But this was brief and he went on to easily & effectively describe the depth chart position by position with eloquence... I had read many posts and had the pre-conceived notion that he would hold information very close to the vest & would ask the crowd right up front to not repeat things he said.. Quite frankly, I was surprised at how open and forthcoming he was with information... IMHO he actually went on to describe certain players with more information than I would have put forth had I been in his position... He asked that we not repeat what he shared with us about 1 player in particular... I've been pleased to see that everyone has honored his reasonable request, altho not surprised based on the calibre of people I observed in the crowd..
He went on to speak for about 20 minutes, then took questions for about another 10 minutes... I think I can speak for most of the people there in saying that he provided the type of information we were interested in hearing, was very gracious, and quite frankly seemed to enjoy himself... Can't remember the exact words or what he was talking about at the time, but he displayed a very dry & timely sense of humor... Not the type of speaker who is looking for laughs, but one who is adept at allowing them to happen....I liked the way that he looked people in the eye when he spoke, making a connection with the crowd as he moved from person to person... Sitting in the front we made eye contact several times & I have not doubt he firmly believed everything he was saying, that he believes he will be successful at Georgia Tech... He left to another standing ovation which appeared to be a couple notches more than his entrance, people appreciative of his time & his quality presentation...
In summary I would say that I was pleasasntly surprised.. He spoke well & he spoke quite a bit longer than I anticipated.. While I've read posts that indicate he has been very controlled about the information he imparts, this wasn't the case.. Which leaves me to believe that either my observations are different than others, or he has received feedback & decided to alter his presentations.. or perhaps he's just settling into his position like we all do & is becoming more comfortable with his position & us, his constituency...
Any criticism that I've directed to this man in the past & probably will in the future is solely regarding his ability to win football games... Like many have said before, he projects himself as the type of man who if you were fortunate enough to know him personally would feel honored to consider him a friend... Should many of us be wrong (myself included) & he goes on to be a topnotch coach at GT we can be proud that we not only have a winner on the field, we have a man that is an excellent representative for Georgia Tech...
Thanx to jacketsrule for putting the number of people who attended the Lunch Bunch Monday night into perspective... I had never attended but had heard that Coach O'Leary would regularly draw 500 for his "Lunches With George" with many turned away so that is about what I expected attendance-wise. At any rate I would highly recommend the Lunch Bunch for anyone who can get away from work for a couple hours... Well run, nice setting, good people, a very positive experience....
I entered the room where gailey would be speaking and was immediately met by a very nice lady at a table in the front.. She said there would be a raffle for some items, gave me a ticket & told me to feel free to sit wherever, which was great 'cause I had my eye on a table about 10 feet from the podium.. It was about 11:25 at this point, about 15 people there so far.. I had come there with the thought of being open-minded and was interested to see how my opinions & opinions of others that I had read here on the boards matched with what I observed...
People were entering, many by themselves & easily mingling & obtaining seats... A fair amount seemed to know people there, probably an equal amount that didn't.. The demographics tended to lean towards a 45+ crowd, grecian formula probably could've made their monthly quota there ... Was surprised that there weren't more young people in attendance.. (20s & 30s)
A couple gentlemen stopped by the table I was at and asked if they could join me.. We quickly engaged in conversation regarding the season... I asked how long they thought gailey would speak, they both agreed that he doesn't appear to enjoy speaking to groups too much & it would probably be 5-10 minutes or so... Without my prompting 1 of the gentlemen indicated he thought it would be a challenging year & that if the first half of the season didn't go well there just may be a coaching change...
An elderly bearded gentlemen who looked very much like many of the engineers that I had done business with for so many years and had very enjoyable business relationships with took the podium to make a few announcements.. He mentioned that gailey had arrived and I turned to see him standing in the back of the room.. At this point he made the announcement & gailey headed to the podium... As he moved toward the front of the room I felt it would've been a nice touch to play the GT fight song over the sound system, perhaps they will consider that for future speakers...
Some people jumped to their feet immediately & started clapping, myself included, some of the elderly gentelemen struggling to their feet a few seconds later.. The applause was warm altho contained... Similar to what I've observed at sales meetings when the "salesman of the month" is called to the podium to accept his/her award... Was surprised to hear no vocal encouragement, no "Go Get 'em Chans" like we often see at the bottom of posts after a new recruit has just verballed....
He took the podium & immediately started speaking, with convinction he said, "We're gonna surprise a lot of people this year"... Mind reading not being one of my skills, I wondered if others were thinking what I was... Let's hope this year is a postive surprise... He continued to speak at this point & stumbled a little bit, immediately confirming what I had heard about his speaking skills...
But this was brief and he went on to easily & effectively describe the depth chart position by position with eloquence... I had read many posts and had the pre-conceived notion that he would hold information very close to the vest & would ask the crowd right up front to not repeat things he said.. Quite frankly, I was surprised at how open and forthcoming he was with information... IMHO he actually went on to describe certain players with more information than I would have put forth had I been in his position... He asked that we not repeat what he shared with us about 1 player in particular... I've been pleased to see that everyone has honored his reasonable request, altho not surprised based on the calibre of people I observed in the crowd..
He went on to speak for about 20 minutes, then took questions for about another 10 minutes... I think I can speak for most of the people there in saying that he provided the type of information we were interested in hearing, was very gracious, and quite frankly seemed to enjoy himself... Can't remember the exact words or what he was talking about at the time, but he displayed a very dry & timely sense of humor... Not the type of speaker who is looking for laughs, but one who is adept at allowing them to happen....I liked the way that he looked people in the eye when he spoke, making a connection with the crowd as he moved from person to person... Sitting in the front we made eye contact several times & I have not doubt he firmly believed everything he was saying, that he believes he will be successful at Georgia Tech... He left to another standing ovation which appeared to be a couple notches more than his entrance, people appreciative of his time & his quality presentation...
In summary I would say that I was pleasasntly surprised.. He spoke well & he spoke quite a bit longer than I anticipated.. While I've read posts that indicate he has been very controlled about the information he imparts, this wasn't the case.. Which leaves me to believe that either my observations are different than others, or he has received feedback & decided to alter his presentations.. or perhaps he's just settling into his position like we all do & is becoming more comfortable with his position & us, his constituency...
Any criticism that I've directed to this man in the past & probably will in the future is solely regarding his ability to win football games... Like many have said before, he projects himself as the type of man who if you were fortunate enough to know him personally would feel honored to consider him a friend... Should many of us be wrong (myself included) & he goes on to be a topnotch coach at GT we can be proud that we not only have a winner on the field, we have a man that is an excellent representative for Georgia Tech...
