Main Seating Area

If you're looking for a place to eat or you're getting ready to view the debate on the Main Stage, this is the place to do it! Dozens of round tables with elegant gold tablecloths are situated in front of the stage, so people can chat amongst themselves and also have prime viewing of the question and answer session on the stage.

Tiffany straightened up her skirt as she made her way towards the seating area. She wanted PRIME seating. So naturally, she had to head towards the seats to find herself one in the very front. But, honestly, she didn't care about this whole flying carpet thing. Actually, she didn't really care about it at all. Sure if the law did change, then she'd buy herself a couple of nice fancy ones, but she wouldn't actually use them. PFT NO. They'd merely be for decoration, next to her fine persian rugs. A fashion statement. That's all.

But anyways, speaking about fashion, the only reason she wanted to sit near the front was so that everyone could notice her elegant attire for the evening. She of course went for the lilac dress that complimented her eyes, while also opting for the silver sparkly heels that matched her earring set. Keeping it classy 'cause that's just how she rolled. Except, eew she'd never roll on the floor! It could ruin her skin.

But right, anyways. It was also so that people could congratulate her on her employee of the month status because she still hadn't received enough compliments on that!! So the invitation to the event was more of an excuse to wear her new dress and her professional title. MHM. She made her way to one of the elegant tables in the front, making sure to click-clack her heels as she did so. Everyone needed to know that she had arrived.

If one looked really closely at Bhuvana's face as she entered the seating area, one might be able to detect the slightest bit of excitement and even a trace of a smile. Bhuvana was actually interesting in what was going to be said in this debate, and she had a notebook to take notes on the way the people answered questions and discussed things and what they needed to improve on and what she could learn from their public speaking. She beelined it to the front tables, ignoring the fact that they might've been reserved for someone important. But she was the most important, anyway.

She sat down at a prime table, center and front. She placed the notebook down elegantly, which tooootally made up for the fact that she was wearing jeans. They were black jeans, at least. Her head slowly turned as she heard the clicking of what sounded like really expensive shoes.

They were. She eyed the woman, her strutting-ness, and the employee of the month badge. And took mental notes.

There is a loud booming voice sweeping over the tables - it's Gabi's voice. She's announcing the beginning of the debate!

"Would all our visiting delegates please report to the Main stage so that our Q&A seminar may begin? Thank you!"

If you're a delegate, you better get your patootie up there. If you're ready to listen to all our council has to say, take a seat and listen up! The debate will begin shortly.

This was interesting to her. Honestly travel was always interesting and carpets, well it didn't take twisting Victoria's arm to come to this debate. She really wanted to see what they had to say and how it would be taken by the observers.

Looking around she found a seat that she felt she could see and hear everything. Oh and they were starting. She quietly sat to listen as they started introducing themselves. She really liked that there were different people up there and one being woman. No offense men, but it was nice to see diversity no matter what the topic.

Finn walked into the main seating place. He had sent a note to Hermy to meet him here. He had kind of waited until she left to send her the note. He had heard about the flying carpet thing in the Prophet, but he didn't imagine she'd be too keen on it and try to talk him out of it. He hoped she'd come. Plus, they could try different foods. Who didn't like different foods? He was hoping he could score some empenadas. He really missed them from his time in Central America.

Looking around the room, he leaned on his staff, reveling in all the smells of the different spices and cooking styles on display.

Hermy had been intrigued by Finn's note. Flying carpets? She'd never been on one, given they were illegal and all, but really didn't see the point. She barely even flew her broom, these days - not alone a huge great big carpet. Regardless, Finn had obviously wanted to come...and thus she was here to take an interest.

She glanced around the main hall for her other half, before finally spying his familiar silhouette. "Well the food smells good, I'll give you that..." she commented as she reached him. She still wasn't too sure on the rest though.

He smiled at the sound of her voice. He turned and collected her in his arms and smiled. Aye. The food smells amazing. Let's get something to eat. We'll talk about the other things while we do. He could tell by her slightly 'appraising' looks around that she wasn't entirely sold on the idea of this symposium. He thought it would be fun just to check it out. He hadn't had much chance to visit the middle east, because there wasn't much call for woods from there for wands, but he'd head many interesting things. He wanted to see if his esteemed 'colleagues' were being truthful. He could think of uses that would be beneficial for a family man taking his family about. Brooms just weren't suited for family travel and wee ones weren't (from what he'd heard) terribly excited about floo networks.

As he looked hopefully at his lovely Hermy, he leaned in and kissed her gently on the cheek, giving her a wink as he did.

Click-clack-click-clack all the way to the very, very FRONT. She had to be seen. It was her thing. Magic carpet expose or not, she'd be at the very front. Where she belonged. Making her way to the practically empty table, she pulled out one of the chairs. She wasn't even going to ask if she could sit there because she had her eye on that table since the very start of this whole thing. If you even looked hard enough, her name was probably engraved on one of the chairs or something. Maybe not, but it should be.

As she sat down, she gave the other woman there a flashy smile. She bleached last night, could this person tell? Of course she could. Her teeth looked like pearls. Really shiny, well kept pearls.

Ahem anyways, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear she leaned forward towards the other woman. Also, she'd like to know this other woman's name so that she didn't have to keep referring to her as 'the other woman'. "Tiffany Price, Minister's office." Her tone was friendly or well, she hoped it was. Someone had mentioned something about coming off as 'fake' and no employee of the month was fake. So she couldn't let that be her reputation. Not now anyways. And she still flashed her pearly smile because huullooooo it was beautiful.

But also, no handshakes. People carry germs and she did not need any gross germs right now.

Aron had been keeping to himself during the symposium. Sticking around the perimeter and busying himself with pretending to check for any faulty enchantments and and whatnot. Security was Emily's deal, but certain things crossed over into his department as well. If anything, it was an excuse not to mingle or get caught up in the whole carpet testing trap.

He had nothing personal against carpets being used as a mode of transportation. But them being approve DID mean that there would be yet another thing for A&C to have to keep an eye on. As he watched all the representatives take to the stage, he seriously doubted any of them knew what a mess it was trying to clean up muggle sightings of wizarding folk on brooms. It was a bloody nightmare and one of the more minor disasters his department had to deal with, but still a nuisance.

Which is why he was intrigued by this Janssen bloke. But only a little.

Leaning back in his seat and stretching both legs out as far forwards as they could go, he caught sight of the gal that had brought his son back to him at orientation and threw a wink out in her direction before both hands went behind his head for some attentive listening.

Feeling a bit better after the tomato incident after she had had some water, Mariel headed over to the seating area with a cup of water in one hand and a roll in the other after she heard the announcement that they were due to begin. She could care less if anyone frowned upon her carrying those things away from the buffet area.. she still felt slightly nauseous and thought it was best to further try to settle her stomach. Let someone say something to her about it with as hormonal as she was lately and see where that got them.

They were just starting as she weaved through the rows of seats in search of a place to sit as she could hear the delegates beginning to introduce themselves. This should be somewhat interesting as she was thinking more and more about family transportation. The brunette noticed a fellow Department Head as she continued and she gave a polite smile to him. "Hello, Aron," she said cordially. "Nice to see you.." She supposed his presence was partially work-related. Pleasantries exchanged, she moved on to a seat behind him near her friend and employee.

"Hey, Vic," she greeted her as she lowered herself in the seat next to the blonde woman. "I didn't know you were coming.." All the better for her, she supposed, as now she had a friend for company, maybe to chat with afterwards to discuss the event as it was becoming more interesting to her.

It had been one thing after another this past year, but she had finally returned to London. She had been assigned to the Ministry of Magic in Madrid, Spain. The evidence retrieval officer in the Spain Ministry of Magic had been forced into a mandatory leave of absence due to misconduct on an important case, and so, upon hearing the news, she had volunteered to take over. After all, it was her hometown, and she craved the opportunity to catch up with those she cared about.

But that was over and done, and it was now time to return to her former job. She had missed her co-workers, of course, but already she felt the yearning of being homesick.

With a quiet sigh, Esme Bass wound her way through several tables before settling at one that was unoccupied. Flying carpets….what a topic to debate. From what she had heard thus far, the delegates were each making fair points. Quite frankly, she never understood the need for the carpets, though she conceded that no mode of transportation was without risks. Perhaps she should try one of them out….just for the experience, of course.

First, however, she’d listen in on the rest of the debate.

Bhuvana narrowly avoided baring her teeth when the woman with the clackity shoes and shiny badge sat at her table, though maybe deeeep down she was a bit relieved because she needed to be seen actually interacting/sitting with people so that she didn't seem unagreeable and therefore not get a promotion. She raised her chin in greeting, using this facial position to also raise her nose into the air.

...She just totally got blinding by that woman's teeth. What did she use? White-out? Bhuvana ran her tongue over her teeth inconspicuously.

Ew, talking? Bhuvana's eyes flicked once more to the woman's badge and made a mental note for the woman's name - Tiffany. Seemed like something out of a soap opera. "Bhuvana Assadi, but you can call me-" Here, she faltered. For some reason, the tacky pick up line her male cousins were always relaying to each other - 'but you can call me tonight,' popped into her mind, and she had to push that thought away before she could continue. "International Cooperation."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Granger1814

It had been one thing after another this past year, but she had finally returned to London. She had been assigned to the Ministry of Magic in Madrid, Spain. The evidence retrieval officer in the Spain Ministry of Magic had been forced into a mandatory leave of absence due to misconduct on an important case, and so, upon hearing the news, she had volunteered to take over. After all, it was her hometown, and she craved the opportunity to catch up with those she cared about.

But that was over and done, and it was now time to return to her former job. She had missed her co-workers, of course, but already she felt the yearning of being homesick.

With a quiet sigh, Esme Bass wound her way through several tables before settling at one that was unoccupied. Flying carpets….what a topic to debate. From what she had heard thus far, the delegates were each making fair points. Quite frankly, she never understood the need for the carpets, though she conceded that no mode of transportation was without risks. Perhaps she should try one of them out….just for the experience, of course.

First, however, she’d listen in on the rest of the debate.

Aron was tempted to turn one of the empty chairs at the table he was seated at to use as a foot rest, but he quickly reminded himself that he was still on the clock and not lounging around in the living room of his home. He spotted Mariel just a split second before she greeted him and threw her a quick wave and smile as she made her way to another table. "Good to see you too."

His attention went back to the stage, only to have it slightly obscured for a moment as a woman walked past and sat down in a seat within earshot of where he was. An unfamiliar face, but one that he was able to place in Law Enforcement. He made it his business to know who was in that department for some obvious reasons.

"So what's your stance?" he asked, nodding his head towards the stage after making eye contact with the woman. "For or against?"

As there appeared to be a lull in the comments from the debate participants, Esme allowed her gaze to wander around the room. No one familiar was around, though she had been gone for a while, so no doubt there would be plenty of new faces around the department.

Esme glanced to her left, and as she did so, she caught the eye of a male figure, and it appeared as though he was interested in making small talk. Turning in her chair so that she fully faced him, Esme smiled in greeting. She didn't recognize him, but she was certainly not going to keep that from answering his question.

"Good question. I haven't really ever thought about it." She admitted. "They seem to be making good points on both sides. I haven't personally tried a flying carpet though, so I can't give my opinion one way or another. Though I admit it does seem a bit redundant in terms of traveling since there are so many other ways to travel."

As she finished reeling off an answer (or maybe babbling her way through the answer was a better description), she cocked her head towards the main stage. "What's your opinion on all of this?"

Bhuvana Who-ssadi? What kind of name was that? No Tiffany Price that's what. But her smile didn't falter. She was used to this sort of thing. Oh, but there was a nickname? That would make it easier. Not that she'd remember the woman's name anyways, Bhu-huh? ahem, but a shorter name would certainly make it easier. Except well... It was taking her a long time.

Could call her... What, exactly? ... International Corporation? Why in the name of Merlin would she call the woman by her department? People here were strange.

"Oh.. Awesome," nodding here mhm. And then, she saw that strange man from the gala. DID HE JUST WINK AT HER?! "Eugh." Rolling her eyes, she flipped her hair and turned back to the Bhuwhateverhernamewas woman. For Merlin's sakes he has a child. An annoying child. "The nerve of some people." she said with a tone of annoyance, expecting Bhuvana to understand. "So the International Corporation? Do you ever travel? My favorites are Milan, Paris, and Barcelona."