Welcome to our first PA entry for the new "OUCH! I wish I'd known that!" slot. She wishes to be known by her first name only, Sandra.

Now Sandra's horror moment came some years ago, after a conference for just under 400 people, held in a hotel local to her firm. Sandra had organised the conference all by herself, even though she had only been in the job for 7 months and had never organised more than a family barbecue before.

Over to Sandra to explain…

Although I was excited at organising the event, I was very nervous at taking on such a big conference as my first project. I did mention it to my boss several times, but he told me that he would help me out every step of the way. In fact, he was only in the office for about two weeks during the whole time I was organising the event! So I was really on my own. I thought I was doing OK, and that things were rolling along quite well. I was pleased with myself, really. I'd organised the venue, the catering, the Chief Exec's speech, the entertainment – everything. Even down to table place names, vegetarian dishes, directions to the hotel… Everything I could think of. And I was keeping a strict eye on my budget, too. My boss had made it clear that I couldn't exceed my budget. The day of the conference came, and it was really scary, but it all went very well. My boss was delighted with me, and even apologised for not having been able to help me much. We were both really pleased. Until the final bill came in from the hotel… A big shock! Everything was as I expected, except for one HUGE item. The drinks. I had selected two wines, a red and a white, from a low-to-mid-range price, and I had allowed half a bottle per person. (Some would obviously drink more, but some people wouldn't drink at all, and they'd already had welcome drinks.) And I had allowed one bottle of mineral water per four people. So I was expecting to pay for around 200 bottles of wine, and 100 bottles of mineral water. I was completely shocked when the hotel billed me for 387 bottles of wine, and 173 bottles of mineral water. And – big error here! – I hadn't checked the cost of the mineral water. The hotel was charging £8 per bottle. The drinks bill was massive. I argued and argued – how could we possibly have drunk all that wine? I asked for proof, but after the event, it was too late. I firmly believe we didn't drink all those bottles – I think the hotel was lying. The hotel insisted, and threatened me with legal action. The drinks bill completely blew my budget, and made me feel sick and miserable about the whole conference, when in fact, it had been successful overall – at least for those attending. My boss helped me to argue with the hotel, but they wouldn't budge. So in the end we had to give in and pay the bill. He was brilliant, I have to say. To this day he has never told anyone about it. It's been a secret between him and me. He even moved some money from another budget to help off-set the cost. And he has always said it was the best conference we had ever run.

What's YOUR story?

Thanks to Sandra for sharing that with us! Scary story, eh. Good thing her boss was understanding. But it can happen to any of us, and it's a great lesson for us all in keeping control of costs.

So, we want to hear more of your stories. Simply email us in the first instance with your "Ouch!" stories and we'll come back to you for a quick chat. Together we can write them up for the "Ouch!" page, for other readers to enjoy and for us ALL to learn from.

Get thinking – when was the last time you groaned, "Oh, I wish I'd known that…!". Tell us about it! Email me at express@deskdemon.com and give me the rough outline of your "horror and hindsight" scenario, and we'll choose the best ones to publish.

Look forward to hearing from you!