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Who: Stephanie Mai, Mystique staff, and OPEN
When: Monday - Thursday afternoon [ Prep for convention arrival]
Where: Casino & Hotel wide
Why: Handed a bet by the Hermit himself, the Hospitality Ace has her hands already full -- until she arrives at the Mystique and learns about the convention that's coming into the Mystique on Thursday and who will be there through the weekend. She, and the staff, have their work cut out for them as they prepare for everything - posthaste.
Stephanie had it handed to her on a anything but a silver platter when she arrived first thing Monday morning to begin work on the list of three she was supposed to handle in order to earn her spurs and claim the title Ace of Hospitality. Two of the three would be fairly easy, but the third, the rock band coming in, was going to take some work. Then, to top it all off, Monday at lunch, she was given the bad news - a convention had called in and wanted to book the Mystique as its meeting place. And to make matters worse it was a ventriloquism convention. Perfect.
Stephanie started out with calls to local furniture places, the big companies who could fill the orders she needed for what the Mystique didn't already have on hand, and then, she sent out two of the more tenured staff to hit the flea markets. Anything dated. Vintage looking for the era, and that wouldn't break the bank on the budget she'd set for herself and for the suite of rooms that were being prepared for the rock band. While she sent others off scurrying to prep the newlywed room, and another in search of the metal tables and chairs she needed pronto, the Ace hit the catering menus she had in stock aplenty from her days in California, and from her father's own restaurant.
A menu selected after an hour of grueling and grunting, she had it faxed to a local company with a fantastic reputation, and then she headed off for the convention areas to start sketching out the layout for the place. Everything wooden was being replaced with metal, and faux plastic; not because the ventriloquists would be threats to the finer furnishings, but because they might, and some did, take offense to large displays of wood that might hurt their counterparts (read 'dummies') feelings.
The banquet room would be set up for their meet and greet with a simple snack menu of cheeses, crackers, finger sandwiches and other finger foods of simple design, while the layout itself would offer plenty of room and lots of smaller stools and tables for the men and women to practice their craft. The stage was set off along one far wall, where they could easily get up, and there was no loose wiring issues to deal with, or micstands that would be too cumbersome and hard for the performers to maneuver around their puppets.
The weekend was layed out in extravagant detail, with the dinner Saturday night before the performance of the main attraction, Mister Dunham, being catered by one of the gourmet restaurants all the way from the strip. She knew the manager of the establishment through various acquaintances, and had even secured a fairly generous cut in the usual catering fees from both the catering service, as well as the chef himself. Ms. Mai has also set up and ensured there would be plenty of additional stools setforth about the casino should the performers feel the need to take their 'art' with them to the gambling tables.
Inside each room set aside for the convention, there would be gift baskets awaiting their arrival on Thursday that had things both for the performers, as well as cleaning and care-taking supplies from a reputable supplier in the puppetry industry depending on the style and manner of common puppet used by each visitor to the convention (which had taken some finagling to get from the head of the convention, but with enough finesse and assurances it was for a good cause, anything is possible).
Thursday afternoon, and into the evening, there were tables set up along the wall of the convention's main banquet room where the arrivals could register and gather their information for the convention. Upon check-up into the Mystique itself, their bags were handled by the assigned bellhops, and taken straight-away to their rooms, to enable the visitors to go straight for the convention activites.
The most intricate part had been getting the sound wiring right for the larger hall where the convention goers would be spending a majority of their time in workshops and performance clinics. She'd had to call in at least two favors with major sound technicians, and also sent them up to Mic to see if he needed anything for the Club to prepare for the performance of Jeff Dunham on Saturday night. Call it making friendly with another on the Aces side of life, and taking a little off the man who'd been wrangling things alone for awhile, or so she had come to learn.
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