But I digress.
I strolled in to a meeting already in progress, and was greeted with a collective bemusement that seemed to range from "What do you want?" to "What did you break this time." To clarify my intent, I settled into a chair and explained, "I'm crashing your meeting see what mischief you little scamps are making," with a sarcastic tone entirely cancelled out by an insouciant wink. And basically shut up for the rest of the meeting. Because learning was the point.
The phrase "crashing your meeting" stuck with me through the remainder of the day, however. So much so that it developed into the idea of taking the premise of the movie The Wedding Crashers applying it to big corporate meetings. Which--alas and alack--recalled the thoroughly forgettable 1987 Michael J. Fox vehicle, The Secret of my Success. (In case you're wondering, my then-boyfriend had a man-crush on Fox--or, more aptly, Alex Keaton.)
The plot outline:
- Two peeps--male and/or female--work among the great unwashed masses of a soulless giga-corporation.
- Our protagonists are smart enough to have figured out how to automate their jobs, leaving them ample free time to perfect the fine art of "Meeting Crashing," which involves a number of requirements for a successful "crash," handed down by a soon-to-be-outsourced mentor.
- One litmus-test of a successfully-crashed meeting is an invitation to transfer to a cushy job in an attending big-wig's department.
- Protagonists are eventually invited to an appropriately lavish "executive retreat," where they will eventually have to decide whether or not this continues to be a game--and also whether they actually have the chops to play with the big kids week-in and week out.
- Protagonists end up taking over the company...and eventually continuing the "meeting crashing" tradition on the Boards of Directors of other companies.
