Fortuitous Meeting

A couple of weeks ago, I met informally with a client to give her some paperwork.  We met in a coffeehouse and sat and chatted for a while before she had to go back to work.  Over the course of our conversation, she mentioned that her organization had been awarded several important international grants within the past month.  As a result, she was overwhelmed with work.  She didn't have enough staff to handle all the tasks that needed to be accomplished within the next several months, and wondered if I knew of anyone who might be looking for a job. 
 
After we talked a bit, I realized that some of the work she needed to get done was right up my alley -- specifically, planning and start-up of large international projects.  Although she knew that I had done a lot of international work, the specifics never really came up, since her main interest was in my proposal writing skills.  She had never looked at my resume to see what I had done besides proposal work.   Based on our discussion, she said she would bring my background to the attention of some of the organization's technical staff, and perhaps there would be some consulting opportunities for me during August/September.   On Monday of this week, I was asked if I could attend a couple of meetings there today.
 
So this morning I met with some of the folks responsible for getting these grants up and running.   They have two assignments for me -- one will begin right away (tomorrow) and will involve preparing some detailed work plans.  The second assignment (not yet definite) may involve a variety of project start-up activities, both here and overseas.  I will know more about this second assignment in a couple of weeks, once my contact returns from his overseas planning trip.
 
This is one of the things I like about consulting -- you never know who might call tomorrow or the next day, or what opportunities might arise.  It certainly makes things interesting.