Rob Jensen

Last week I was in San Francsico as part of my day job responsibilities. I haven’t had any work related travel in the last two years so I was excited for the opportuntiy to visit my favorite city again.

San Francisco is home to many companies and entrepreneurs I admire. The whole week before the trip I was writing down notes and places I wanted visit. The plan was to make the most out of my time there and that left very little time to spend with the company that sent me there after 5pm.

Come my first night there however I was quickly put back in reality. With a long list of to do items and back to back days filled with all-day meetings there was little time to fulfill my SF tech fanboy wish list. What kills me most about this were the events happening in the city that I discovered while I was there.

Last week was the Web2.0 Expo. I had no plans to attend but later found out there was an open component of the event much like barcamp. On one night there was also an Ignite event and on a separate night there was a meet up for Identi.ca users and a tweetup later that night.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to make it to any of these events. You are probably thinking that I just blew the perfect opportunity, right? However I look at it simply as an opportunity cost. While these events were taking place I also was able to meet and build a working relationship with 40 of the most amazingly smart and talented coworkers I have ever met.

I spent my nights with coworkers I have never met before learning more about the company I work for and getting introduced to people and business lines I would have never met outside of that time. That is the story of work trips. In a company as large as the one I work for it is a rarity to meet some of the people you work with face to face. So to be given an opportunity like this to meet current and future leaders of the company and not take advantage of that would have been a waste.

I don’t know what would have come out of going to the San Francisco events however I do know I that I created a number of new friendships and I can’t wait to reconnection with them Monday morning to see how their weekend and travel home went. I will not forget the experience that I had there nor can I think of a more perfect work trip.

I am bummed that I didn’t even make it through a quarter of my to do. On paper, it may seem like I should have done more with my time there however it was just a small opportunity cost and right now I feel like I am coming out ahead.

I do not know when I’ll make it out to San Francisco again however I know those events won’t be the last. So next time I’m out West I will prep my to do list, scan for new activities and continue to consider the opportunity costs.

(image credit: thomashawk)