If you’re a member of ODTUG, hopefully you’ve heard of the wonderful group of people who make ODTUG hum behind the scenes: Your Conference Connection (YCC). If you haven’t heard of them, or haven’t had a chance to visit their home city of beautiful Wilmington, NC, then buckle-up, because I’m about to take you on a tour of both.

Why am I paying a visit to YCC? I’m the BI Community Lead for ODTUG and we have some serious things to plan for the BI Community! We’re also working on a secret session for Kscope (shhh) that should prove interesting and fun. I was able to plan my visit after a Thur/Fri trip to Atlanta, thus enabling me to spend some weekend time in the coastal city of Wilmington, NC to enjoy food, sites and sun.

I arrived at the GIANT (kidding) airport in Wilmington and was greeted by Lauren Prezby, Creative Director of ODTUG. She hauled me into town in her wicked pick-up truck so I could check into my hotel before we started our evening. There are two unique areas of Wilmington: the beaches and the cute downtown by the Cape Fear river. I opted for a small independent hotel downtown near the Riverwalk called, ahem, Hotel Riverwalk. The hotel is very nice, clean, has solid room amenities, nice owners and is in a great location near both the Riverwalk and the more popular downtown streets. I highly recommend it.

Since I had planned to tour downtown the next day, Lauren drove us out to the Wrightsville beach area for dinner. We had fish tacos and queso blanco at Tower 7 that were exceptionally good. Everything at the beach is very dense — the narrow roads, the clustered buildings, the small interiors, and Tower 7 was no exception, but don’t let that fool you, because the atmosphere was very cool and the food was awesome. After dinner, we hung-out on the nicely-sized beach and took-in the sound of breaking waves, something Minnesota lake beaches just don’t have. Then we headed to a dive-bar called Buddy’s that has fake dollar bills plastered all over the walls and ceiling with people’s names, phone numbers, and other funny little quips on them. After some good conversation and an acknowledgement that we’re not as young as we used to be (at least I’m not), Lauren dropped me off at the hotel and I hit the pillow hard.

I unintentionally awoke early on Sunday morning, but instead of lounging around in bed (tempting), I strolled down the street to get breakfast at Dixie Grill, the first of many recommendations prepared for me by Crystal Walton, Executive Director of ODTUG. I ordered biscuits and gravy, grits, and sweet potato pancakes, a breakfast I thought properly reflected the southern locale, and proceeded to enjoy a fantastic breakfast. Again, I highly recommend it.

(Writer’s note: let’s face it, there is nothing I had all weekend I wouldn’t highly recommend, so from here on out, I’ll spare you the repetitive glowing recommendations — it all rocked.)

After a mid-morning nap induced by stuffing myself silly, I wandered up and down the entire Riverwalk and started navigating around town. I stopped at Chops’s Deli for a unique sandwich called the Malmo, which boasted yummy homemade pimento cheese, among other unique ingredients. In a world of Subway, Jimmy John’s, and Potbelly where every sandwhich is the same, Chop’s was a welcome diversion from the norm. The rest of my afternoon consisted of a lot of walking, some lounging on the Riverwalk sipping wine, and a bit of shopping.

Crystal, Lauren, and Melissa Pollard met me for dinner at RX, a cool farm-to-table style restaurant that specializes in local ingredients and recipes. We had pork belly, pork ears, more pimento cheese, wings, salad, and a wicked side of macaroni and cheese (among other things). Melissa, being vegetarian, had a delicious dish prepared special just for her and we all shared two desserts, one of which seemed to be exploding chocolate with every bite. I’ve heard Danny Bryant was able to experience this great restaurant and I’m sure he enjoyed it just as much as I did.

With the weekend over, it was time to get down to business on Monday morning. Crystal and Lauren drove me into the YCC office, gave me a tour, introduced me to everyone, and then we dove into our work. The office is a pretty good size, with most of the 15-or-so employees having either their own office or a shared one. For having just moved into this particular building in January, the entire office had a very lived-in feel to it, as if decades of work had transpired there. And like a home that has grown with a family over many years, there were ebbs and flows to the activity in the office. One moment your could hear a pin drop with everyone in deep focus, the next moment was Grand Central Station.

Therein lies the elusive nature of YCC — we as ODTUG’ers don’t really see or notice the amount of work that goes into running our favorite user group, but at times seeing the bustle in the office was almost like watching the TV show ER, with the camera flowing from one thing to the next. There were challenges to overcome and quick decisions to be made, all while balancing the needs and wants of many vested interests. But I also learned that YCC isn’t just about ODTUG — they have other clients, too. I don’t remember the exact count, but it keeps everyone on their toes. Some clients require year-round efforts like ODTUG, others focus on a singular event each year. They come from a variety of industries and specialties, and the ladies at YCC divide and conquer to give each customer the attention they need; only a portion of the YCC employees focus on ODTUG.

I’ve mentioned Crystal, Lauren, and Melissa, but ODTUG also gets support from Lori, Erin, Karin, and Jill. They all wear many hats, but each has unique abilities. There are other contributors whose names I sadly can’t remember because I’m horrible with learning names for the first time, but there was one consistency throughout that you can see in the photo above: they all work with a smile.

There were a few more great meals during the rest of my trip: burrito’s at Flaming Amy’s, BBQ at Jackson’s, and good beer at Front Street Brewery, but the true highlight of the trip was getting a peek behind the scenes of ODTUG, an experience I liken to watching the DVD extras of your favorite movie. Before leaving for the airport I sat in the office of Kathleen, the owner of YCC, and I listened to her talk about YCC and Wilmington, clearly proud of both. Her affection for where she is and what she does is the catalyst for the great work that comes out of YCC, and we as ODTUG’ers should always be mindful and appreciative for that.

Thank you to all at YCC who made my visit so enjoyable. I’ll see some of you at Kscope soon and I hope to see all of you in Wilmington again someday.