The Lighter Side by Karen Peña
Fall 2008

A Magnificent Moment!

Inspirational speaker, trainer, national aerobatic champion, wing walker, and national account manager for ConferenceDirect karen.pena@ conferencedirect.com

GUESS I COULD START this story with “long ago in a castle far, far away…” But one of the most memorable sales experiences in my 25 years in this industry happened when I was a national sales manager for Medieval Times Dallas.

A very prominent association relied heavily upon the ticket sales to their off-site event for a good portion of their annual budget. They chose
Medieval Times. We would often help promote the ticket sales by bringing knights and wenches to the tradeshow, but in this instance, the President of the organization thought it would be WONDERFUL if we could bring our horses to the show floor in the Fairmont Hotel and strut them down the aisles to music.

Now to the average person, it might seem quite simple to shove a couple of “horsies” into an elevator and then ride them through a trade show
floor, but these were not just your “average” ponies, they were Andalusian stallions. Shoehorning these spirited steeds into an elevator was the last place that they would want to be. Riding up with them, in fact, could be deadly.

Our Head Knight and horse trainer thought that I was crazy to even consider the idea, but well… I’ve never been known for my reticent personality. And they were not at all humored when I suggested, “Perhaps we could put the two stallions in the elevator alone, push the button, and run up stairs to meet them.”

It took a lot of begging and ego stroking to get the powers that be to finally agree. I’m sure that my promising them a “sold out” show actually did the trick.

The riders began working to get the horses into the elevator about 30 minutes before they were supposed to appear. We all held our breath!

Then the majestic music trumpeted into the ballroom, the elevator doors opened and out stepped two beautiful stallions with their regal riders both cloaked in magnificent cobalt blue costuming.

It was one of those moments when you realize this is something you will never forget. I looked at the President and tears were streaming down her face. The sight was enough to take your breath away.

And it worked. Medieval Times had a complete sell-out that night! 

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