What a busy morning. There’s an 8am webinar I’d really like to take in, but I also need to be at a 9am Contact Center workshop in San Francisco, and then there’s that short but important personal call I’m expecting any time. Oh, and a guy’s gotta eat, right? Yes, I want it all.
Lefty O’Doul’s on Geary St is named for the legendary baseball great and close to the Westin, where the workshop is happening. It’s a tourist area, so the only thing it has in common with most Silicon Valley breakfast places is WiFi. I’m the only person in there with a laptop out, trying not to appear too out of place (anywhere else and I’d be an oddball if I DIDN’T have a tech toy edging out the ketchup).
Order placed, I join the webinar, happy that I can discreetly listen to the PC audio on my Bluetooth headset, a Voyager PRO UC. Food arrives. I dig in, graphs about mobile device adoption a moving backdrop to the Classic Irish breakfast in front of me. I might just be surfing baseball stats so far as anyone knows.
And then that personal call comes in on my mobile, just an alert in my ear (my ringer’s off, out of courtesy to others). A tap of the headset, the PC audio drops, the call is answered. I talk low to avoid drawing attention. No problem being heard by the caller, who imagines I’m in my living room, not a bustling City eatery. And those around me think I’m just muttering to myself about those stats I’m discovering: darn those Yankees, and surely Giambi’s ’07 average was higher than that?
Personal matter promptly resolved, another tap, the call drops and I’m back in the PC audio. Shortly the webinar ends. With a few minutes to spare I use the headset to check out an MP3 file an excited pal sent me of his new band – life balance, right?
I reflect on all I have just achieved. I’m ahead of the curve personally and professionally, fed and watered, and haven’t offended a soul. The smart headset made it simple. Shouldn’t getting Giants tickets be this easy?
And, talking at the workshop not half an hour later, I drop in a nugget I just learnt in the webinar. A solid base hit. I’m sure Lefty O’Doul would have approved.