I work at a company called Map Your Show, also known as MYS. Earlier this year the marketing department started a blog. Today I’ve been featured in a little segment called “Know Your Show-er”!

Without further ado, here’s the full text, or you can just click here.

Wedding Portrait

When they’re not servicing your trade show software, they’re leading pretty interesting lives. A behind-the-scenes look at our Director of Mapping & Interactive Technology

Name: John Sullivan

Occupation: Director of Mapping & Interactive Technology

Years of Service: 6

Do you have a favorite MYS-specific story/memory?

There’s a lot of great memories. But the first one that comes to mind is seeing our fearless leader Don Kline crush a karaoke version of “I’m Too Sexy” at one of our Christmas parties.

Assuming you like Cincinnati, what are some of its best parts?

Here are some of my faves:

Sports Team: Bengals

Park: Devou Park

Restaurant: Sotto

Neighborhood: Riverside Drive Historic District in Covington

Fast Food: White Castle

Bar: Ludlow Bromley Yacht Club

What’s the coolest place you’ve traveled to and why?

We went to Bali for our honeymoon last year, truly unbelievable. World class surf, incredible massages, delicious fusion food, beautiful lounges/clubs, mind boggling cliffside Hindu temples. My wife will disagree, but my favorite memory was rinsing off in our open-air shower, turning around to see a dozen Macaque monkeys, eyes locked on ours, inching towards us. It was a man vs. beast battle… I was hurling rocks, monkeys were growling and scattering. Somehow, we lived to tell the tale.

What’s one of the most challenging aspects of technology in general?

There is always going to be something new in technology. And I think software specifically changes at an even faster pace. The most challenging part is knowing when and how to make the jump to the next big unfamiliar thing. What is a fad and what is the future?

You and your wife have a newborn baby; any stories or advice you’d share with soon-to-be parents?

I’ve only been a dad for 2 months, so my list of advice is pretty short:

  1. Believe your wife when she says she is in labor. Don’t suggest that it was the flounder we had eaten for dinner.
  2. If you’re taking a vacation later in pregnancy, buy trip insurance! Our son came 5 weeks early… trip insurance saved us a bunch of money.
  3. Don’t dilly dally while changing diapers. There will be projectiles.
  4. Feel free to disregard childrearing advice from strangers on the internet. Including me!

Have you ever met anyone famous?

By some strange twist of fate, my dad was Robert Redford’s stand-in for the filming of The Old Man and the Gun. A good chunk of it was shot in Greater Cincinnati. One day I stopped by the set after work to see my dad. I got to meet/see some of the cast like Robert Redford, Tom Waits. It was really cool to see how many people were involved in shooting a basic scene. Can’t wait to see the movie!

As the ringleader of the MYS volleyball and basketball teams, why are you so competitive?

I kind of hate exercising for health’s sake. So, I tend to trick myself into exercising through competitive sports. Winning feels good, everyone understands that. The kicker is that if you like your teammates, it’s fun even when you lose. I mean volleyball is the only sport I can think of where I can drink beer AND roll around the sand.

Who should be featured on the blog next?

Let’s hear from Lauren Zumbahlen!