G-20 prep

There I was today, walking around the secret passageways of the Pittsburgh International Airport. I did not have to go through any security, in fact, I was given a tour of the airport by the people in charge of airport security.

This was a strange way to see the inner workings of an airport. First, behind the scenes, much like behind the scenes at a film studio or a sausage factory, it is not as pretty as I would have hoped. There was no secret gym and locker room for the pilots, and trust me, I was looking. I was also paying attention to things like doors. There are doors I never saw as I walked from one terminal to another in the past. But today, I would walk past a food stand and the guy with the badge would look over and say "follow me" and he would key in some code, the door would unlock and we were again deep in the bowels of the airport.

Airports are hardly ever pretty. I am not sure why this is, because many of us have spent many hours at airports. It seems like an advanced society would make airports beautiful and sexy. A place we would all like to hang out in, but only get to visit when we fly. Imagine being excited to fly because you may get stuck in Denver for a few extra hours.

The Pittsburgh Airport is really functional above all else. It is that functionality that makes is cumbersome and boring. I was there on a technical mission, but I have to say, as I walked from office to office, from roof top to basement, one thing I noticed, loud and clear, these people are taking the impending arrival of the worlds leaders extremely seriously.

A few times in my life I have been in a presidential wait. Either a president was passing through an area I was in, or I was attending an event or a speech, and every time, you could sense the security, and often times see it. But here I was, in an airport that will see leaders of the worlds largest economies and these people were preparing for anything and everything.

What I really found fascinating is how wide the communication loop is reaching and how well planned everything seems. These are professionals doing what they do, and it was kind of inspiring.