Freaking Out...

I'm having a moment of complete hysteria and feel compelled to write, hoping it will make me feel better. While I realize my hysterics are completely unwarranted for the situation, I'm generally a nervous person when something big or important is about to happen. Today, it's the first of three training Webinars I set up with internationally known, communications measurement guru Angela Sinickas, ABC. While normally this wouldn't be all that big of a deal, it seems the whole process of setting up the training has been quite a mess. First, it started with the flyer promoting the training. Although it had been proofread about 10 times by two different people, I failed to include the time of each Webinar so I had to send out a corrected version which made me feel like a complete idiot.

A few weeks later, our finance director informed me that trainings such as this that cost over a certain amount have to be cleared by the Office of Management and Budget and it usually takes 30 days to obtain that clearance. No one told me this when I was setting everything up and even now I have no idea if we actually obtained the clearance we need. Thankfully, we have two more Webinars through the end of the month which should give us the time we need for clearance.

Then there was a problem I discovered yesterday with the link to the Webinar. Apparently, the organization we use to host our Webinars has two different locations where presentations are hosted. One location is for contract-related presentations and the other is for non-contract related presentations. In April, we used this same organization for a training and used one of their staff as the presenter. Not knowing there were two locations for Webinars, I listed the location that was used for the April training (which is considered a contract-related training) on the flyer for today's training (which is considered a non-contract related training). It wasn't until yesterday when I checked to see if our presentation had been loaded that I noticed it wasn't there. This was of course AFTER I had sent out a reminder to our listserv, so once again, I felt like an idiot. Then while in the shower this morning I realized I had to set up the teleconference so we would have operator assistance and the call recorded. As soon as I got to work I was able to set that up with no problem which was quite a relief. Also, I was confident the first Webinar was going to be on Methods of Communications Measurement but when I received the slides this morning, it seems the training is  focused on creating appropriate communications plans based on research. I knew I should have confirmed with Angela before sending out that damn flyer.

Sigh. I'm starting to feel a bit better now that I've gotten this all out, but I'm still nervous. Normally our director is the person who introduces our speakers on these big national calls but today, her and my manager are in Northern Virginia at our marketing and communications sub-contractor getting feedback on our national branding plan. Our other communications coordinators are out of town so it's up to me to start the call and introduce Angela. Thankfully, I've had some time to write up a little blurb that I can read and I'll be dialing into the teleconference 15 minutes early to make sure Angela is all set up. Hopefully, this will all go off without a hitch.

On a positive note, this has been a fantastic learning experience for me. I've learned I need to slow down and get my ducks in a row before moving on to each next step. I need to think about the questions I'm going to ask and what information I need to move on to the next step and not be afraid to ask more questions.

Thanks for listening to momentary freak out. I feel much better.