My Last Presentation in Milan

So, today was D-day...well, for me at least. Today was my last presentation for this project. We presented our intermediate findings to our client's executive director who we haven't seen since our initially meeting about a month ago. Ok, I will start out by saying that of course, the presentation was a mess. And of course, there were some moments when all I could do was shake my head. But that's a given. I will only share the highlights. One team member showed up wearing a pair of jeans, a long brown top with a brown belt around the waist, and a pair of red pumps. Another showed up with a dress that looked like a ballgown. So we were 7 out of 9 in terms of appropriate business attire. Let's move on to presentation skills. One team member started rambling for 5 minutes about the importance of online retailing (which marked only half of the information on the slide - keep in mind the ED only had 40 minutes with us and there were 40 slides) only for the ED to tell her that online retailing represented about 0.00 something percent of sales for luxury in Italy, and significantly less than 1% worldwide and that he didn't want to hear any more about it. Lol. Another team member started rambling and laughing during her presentation about how in China guys get a kick out of buying luxury gifts for their girlfriends - this was while she was talking about a slide on demographics of luxury consumers in the core markets (China wasn't even the focus of today's presentation). Sidenote: the printer was slow printing the presentation this morning (of course no one brought copies) so it was taking a while getting the ED a copy - this same team member offered the ED her presentation printout complete with all her little scribbles and notes in the sidebars. He just looked at her like "thanks, I'll pass." Another team member got flustered b/c the ED started showing his unrest with the mediocre presentation (he got up and turned off the AC, left the room to talk to someone, starting having side conversations, it was comedy - thankfully I had already presented), and she became speechless and forgot what she was going to say. Then she started stuttering. She felt really bad afterward but personally I thought that was the least of things to feel bad about. I personally didn't see the slides until this morning (they were sent at 3:43am by Ashley). I flipped through it and my updated slide wasn't in there (but there was a related slide listing all these bogus trends that weren't even true for luxury, and which were supported by general consumer facts that had nothing to do with the luxury market - the whole point of my slide was to pull out the trends that apply to luxury). Then I noticed a slide on page 15 which quoted the same fact (verbatim) that I had on my slide on page 9. I didn't look at it anymore. Ahhh....I could go on and on, but I will stop there since we've already established that mediocrity is at the core of this team. The feedback from the ED was basically everything that I had felt sitting there listening to the presentation - it was a whole lot of nothing (he said that in a much more eloquent way of course). He encouraged the team not to get "lost in the complexity of the data because otherwise you end up with nothing of substance" (lol, I prefer "that was a whole lot of nothing"). I think he's more interested in the quantitative part of the study anyway. Afterward, we went across the street and Stefania treated us to coffee before she darted off for her holiday (everyone is leaving now for holiday - they go away for basically the entire month of August). She wanted to get our feedback on the project and see how we could be involved ongoing. Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about trying to find an eloquent way of saying "Bocconi students are a mess", b/c Stefania beat me to it (ok, of course she didn't say they're a mess but she did flat out say that they lack professional maturity and experience and that she expressly wanted our feedback as students who come from a different environment with more professional experience). I think Rita and I were both very fair in communicating what did and didn't work and giving the negative feedback that needed to be heard but also balancing it with some positives. We both put in big plugs for Wharton and I put in an extra plug for the FLC (fashion & luxury club) there, stressing that we want to continue working with SDA Bocconi on ongoing projects and build a better alliance b/w the two schools. Stefania wants us to continue to be involved (I also put in my plug for an invite to the event in NYC, lol - she said it will be later in the year - October or November - and that the event brings together the 30 or 40 SDA Bocconi alums working in the fashion industry in NYC). Nice. She also acknowledged (w/o me saying anything) that she wants to help us build our contacts in the industry through this project and give us as much exposure as possible, which I thought was a nice gesture considering we are not Bocconi students. It remains to be seen if that actually happens but I'm hopeful. After the meeting, I went back to the apartment and packed a bag full of things I wanted to try to mail back to the states (b/c I don't have space for them in my suitcase). Ale suggested I go to the main post office near the Duomo since they are open through lunch and are usually reliable (as if the rest of the post offices are not reliable???). This turned out to be a journey. I took the tram to the post office and walked into a side entrance. The woman told me I couldn't send packages. I just looked at her like she was crazy - what post office doesn't allow you to send packages? I walked outside and around the corner and went into the main entrance. The woman at the information desk told me I had to go to another building to send packages. Ok, fine. So I find my way to that building (it was about a block and a half away), and go the wrong direction inside the building. Fortunately, a very nice Italian lady put me in the right direction. As I was walking into the room, a guy who was also walking in told me that I'm looking for packages so I have to go to another room in the building, further down the corridor. Ok, so it took me about 5 attempts before I finally got to the room where I could send a package. Makes you appreciate the U.S. postal office. Once I was in the room however, it was another journey. I asked a guy behind the window how to send a package - he directed me across the room to a woman who spoke English. So I ask her for packaging, and she sells me a large envelope and a medium sized box. It cost about 3 euros and some change. Fine. So I sit down and pack up my envelope with the Vogue Italia magazines, and I pack up the box with all the other stuff and I label it with my Minneapolis address. I go back to the woman who speaks English and she tells me to weigh the packages - if they weigh more than 2kg I can't send them regular mail. So I weigh them - the envelope is 3.7kg and the box is 7.6kg. So I get on line for the "special" services. The guy behind the counter asks me if I want to send them fast or slow - I say slow which supposedly takes 7-14 business days (perfect since I won't be in the apartment for another week and a half anyway). Then he asks me for the weights. When I tell him, he responds that packages over 5kg require the fast service and is very expensive. I just look at him and didn't respond. I wasn't trying to spend a ton of money to ship the packages. He gave me some forms to fill out then out of nowhere said "since you're very sexy I will list these both as 3kg so you can send them slow." I thought "he didn't just say that, did he?" So I responded "what did you say?" And he repeated it. Somehow, being called sexy by an older Italian man while trying to mail a package at the post office just seemed so inappropriate. I kept my mouth shut though since he appeared to be helping me out. I filled out the customs forms, and prepared to pay...then he told me the cost. 31 euros.....EACH. What type of madness is that??? Ok, I was prepared to pay 31 euros total but EACH? The 3 magazines in the envelope only cost me 15 euro total to buy so why would I spend 31 euros to mail them. If that's the slow service I don't want to know what the fast service costs. So I told him I would mail the box (at least the contents of the box were worth more than 31 euros) and return later with the envelope. I paid the 31 euros and left. The minute I walked outside I decided I would just have to make space for those magazines in my suitcase. Now of course since I was downtown, I couldn't just come straight home. So I walked around the area, and had lunch at Burger King (whopper Jr. combo) with some stranger (yeah since people here have no sense of personal space, they will come and sit with you when you're eating - it's so odd, you're sitting across from this stranger and just not speaking). Then I checked out a bunch of shops along Via Torino (the street that leads back to my apartment) that were having the last of their sales. I shopped until the money in my pocket was gone - mostly small items, I don't have much space in my bag left - then hopped on the tram back to the apartment. I did find a nice black duffle bag to take on the plane with me which has a lot of space so hopefully I'll be able to fit everything. When I got back to the apartment, I passed out. I was very tired. I woke up not too long ago and now I'm going to attempt to pack up my suitcase. Two more days to go y'all.