Florida or Bust...

Last year, after my trip to Greece and before the whole foot-drama saga began, I decided I might be done traveling. It just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. The world didn’t seem to satisfy that curiosity I once had to see as much of it as possible. Maybe I’ve changed. The world has most definitely changed. Tourism is booming, and you can feel it everywhere you go. Sometimes, it feels like you spend more time navigating crowds than actually enjoying the place you came to see.

So I was pretty comfortable with the idea of staying home.

Then along came this year’s Innovation Summit for my sector at work.

The summit was being held in Clearwater, Florida, the hometown of KnowBe4’s corporate offices. In the five years I’ve worked for the company, I’ve never actually been to the office. Not once. I figured this was probably an excellent opportunity to rectify that situation. And since I’d already be in Florida, I could tack on a trip to Jacksonville to see The Niece and Great Nephew.

So, I said yes.

And then, as the months passed, followed by the weeks, I started to wonder what exactly I’d gotten myself into.

There were several reasons for my growing anxiety, but let’s start with the obvious one: traveling itself. Getting there and getting home are, hands down, the WORST parts of any trip. Airports? Blech. All the logistics, the waiting, the hauling of luggage, the general nonsense required to get from Point A to Point B. I could happily skip that entire portion of the experience.

But there was another issue I hadn’t fully considered when I agreed to go. I was going to have to be social for an entire week. That meant talking to people. Being around people. Interacting with people for hours on end. Now, I like people. In reasonable quantities. With breaks in between.

Working from home has spoiled me in the best possible way. I can do my job without having to make small talk in the hallway or pretend I’m not distracted by the person having a loud conversation three desks away. But the flip side is that I’m not exactly practicing my people skills on a daily basis. After years of being a homebody, a whole week of socializing sounded exhausting before I’d even packed a suitcase.

I knew I was going to need a strategy to survive a week of being around people I actually liked. As it turns out, the socializing wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d anticipated.

Exhausting? Yes.

Worth it? Also yes.

The Innovation Summit is all about networking and learning what other teams are doing to innovate their work, improve our content, and generally make things better. And with AI becoming such a big part of everything we do, there was plenty of cool stuff to see and learn about.

Most of my PM crew and my boss.

But one of the best surprises was discovering just how funny and entertaining so many of my coworkers are. Not that I expected them to be boring, but it’s one thing to know someone through emails, meetings, and the occasional video call. It’s another thing entirely to spend time with them in person.

After working with some of these people for more than five years, it was genuinely fun to finally meet them face-to-face. There’s a different kind of connection that develops when you get to know the actual human being behind the computer screen. You go from being coworkers who get things done together to people who can laugh, joke, and enjoy each other’s company.

Who knew?

Of course, we didn’t spend the entire week sitting in conference rooms listening to presentations. There were some fun activities mixed in, too.

On Wednesday evening, we boarded the Calypso Queen for a sunset cruise. The food was, shall we say, underwhelming. But the view? Amazing. It was one of those perfect Florida evenings when the weather cooperates, the sunset puts on a show, and you’re reminded that sometimes just being out on the water is entertainment enough.

It was also a chance for everyone to relax, hang out, and talk about things other than work. We got to be humans first and coworkers second, which is a pretty nice way to spend an evening.

Thursday night brought us to Celebration Station. Not exactly my idea of a good time, but I went along anyway. Sometimes you have to participate in the group activity even when it wouldn’t have made your personal list of preferred entertainment.

Besides, it was another opportunity to spend time with my coworkers outside the usual work setting. And by that point, I was getting pretty good at this whole socializing thing.

Or at least I was committed to seeing it through.

After all that work-related fun, it was time to head to Jacksonville to visit The Niece and Great Nephew.

He’s almost two years old, which means he’s displaying all the standard characteristics of a toddler. The Sister-in-Law had warned me ahead of time that he was very attached to The Niece and that I shouldn’t expect a whole lot of interaction with him.

Fair enough. I could still enjoy spending time with them, even if I was mostly going to be an observer in the Great Nephew Show.

She was not exaggerating.

That child was attached to The Niece like Velcro. Wherever she went, he went. If she was nearby, I was apparently of little consequence.

And honestly, that was fine. I wasn’t expecting him to suddenly decide I was the most fascinating person on the planet. I was happy just to be there.

Eventually, though, he loosened up a little. He allowed me to read to him, and I was an acceptable recipient of his many high-fives. We spent a day or so together, and it was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them.

It was also a welcome bit of downtime after a busy week of work events, presentations, and being social. Turns out, even when you enjoy the people you’re with, a little quiet time is still a very good thing.

I finally made it home last night at around midnight and promptly collapsed into bed. There was no easing back into real life, though. I was up bright and early this morning, back at work and pretending I hadn’t just spent a week away from my usual routine.

And now I’m home, reunited with my own space, my own schedule, and the blissful absence of having to make conversation unless I actually want to.

So, what did I learn from this adventure?

First, I’m still not a fan of airports. That hasn’t changed.

Second, a week of socializing is exhausting, but it can also be incredibly rewarding. I got to meet people I’ve worked with for years, learn new things, laugh a lot, and build connections that are harder to make when everyone is just a little box on a computer screen.

I’m also perfectly happy to leave the corporate office visits alone for a while. Five years between visits seems like a perfectly reasonable interval to me.

Maybe I’ll aim for every five years going forward.

And if anyone asks me to come back sooner, I’ll have to give that some serious thought.

Preferably from the comfort of my own home.