A Lesson in Interpersonal Communication

As stated in a previous entry, one of the learning objectives for this project is to develop interpersonal research skills. While the research itself has yet to fully begin, the interpersonal communication is in full swing. Over the last couple of weeks I have been contacting and meeting with staff from a handful of different venues that I hope to use as locations for questions. The locations were chosen by determination of places frequently visited by people in their every day lives and applied to local "hot spots" so to speak. Every venue that I have contacted so far has different policies, hoops to jump through, and preferred means of communication. As a busy college student myself, this has been a challenge. It is common that people joke about adult friendships primarily being people having to reschedule and "penciling it in" in order to actually meet with people, and that has certainly been me the last two weeks. I have learned that something as simple as asking as permission can become a multi-week process because of this. I have also learned quite a bit about Meijer's corporate policies and my consequential inability to use that as a location for this project. All of this has given me a tremendous amount of respect for event planners and people who regularly are booking appointments with people of various businesses, trades, or practices.

Although I have studied interpersonal communications and practiced skills in other contexts, this project is a learning curve for me. Every project is different. Until now, all the other events I have planned, organized, or assisted with have been in one location over a specific amount of time. This project is unique in that it is essentially an interactive exhibit set up in one place for a day or two and then changed and moved to another location. This change in spaces used creates more hurdles to jump but ultimately a more diverse audience, more personal contacts and networking, and more experience in an area that I clearly could have used more practice in. Perhaps the hardest part of all of it is learning to accept that the timeline may have to shift and it is not something worth getting upset about (I am someone who likes to stay on schedule). Working with other people can be unpredictable, but if I remain positive about the project and prepare the next steps (displays) as much as possible in the meantime I should be able to make up for it in the scheme of things.