Building With a Little Help from Bill Gates

1990 – Year 3 of 24. I truly believed that Bright Ideas was going to be all right; that the company would be successful. I don’t know why I believed that, but I did. My family and friends were not so confident, probably because they didn’t have the same dream and vision I did. By now I had discovered my career goal. I wanted to be a Corporate Event Planner. It sure sounded good anyways!

I was sitting on the beach with a girlfriend in the spring of 1990, and she was asking me what I was going to do about my situation. I told her that I wasn’t worried in the least. I told her that good things were coming my way. She shrugged her shoulders and I am sure she thought I was crazy. How could I say this when my situation was so dismal? I don’t know. But it was how I honestly felt.

Sharon Bonner at an early Bright Ideas event

Good things did come my way soon after that chat. Very good things. Microsoft was acquiring a software company in Gastown and wanted an event giving employees a chance to mingle and get to know each other. They approached me and I suggested a casino on a yacht. That’s exactly what we did.

Here is how we set up the buffet on the ship. Not a good layout I now have learned. Major bottle neck for traffic flow!

Buffet at an early Bright Ideas event for Microsoft

Check out the hair styles. Wow – that goes back a ways.

The event was super successful and I diligently asked for a letter of reference. I shopped that reference letter from Microsoft around talking to Safeway, 7-11, Chevron; all the big companies. I sold myself and the company until I was blue in the face. But it paid off. They were booking events with me. The gift of the gab saved me after all. I was off to the races!

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