by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2005/06/05 17:48 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/06/05/425423.aspx
(absolutely no technical content!)
There is a distinct possibility that you may be sick of me talking about TechEd by the end of the week (in fact, you may be sick of it now!).
Well, you may just want to take the week off, or skip a lot of posts. :-)
Well, I do promise the rest of the week will be about relevant, topical things.
I met Russ Rolfe on my way from the Peabody to the Conference Center, which was good since I did not know where it was. We talked on the way about the fact that it was probably a ten-minute walk, which makes the whole description of "just across the street" seem a little misleading.
(Luckily I have the scooter -- even the walk from Registration to the TechEd store on the other side of the huge room would have been enough to wipe me out, let alone trips back and forth between the hotel and the Conference Center!)
The huge stairwell was disheartening, but the elevator behind it quickly turned my spirits around. One quick ride up followed immediately by a quick ride down in another elevator and I was at Registration. I checked in and they replaced the badge I had been sent with a new one (the new one had no T-shirt coupon, which upset me until I realized I did not wear conference T-shirts anymore, so it did not matter!). In with my SWAG was a note that said that I was to report to the Speaker's lounge to "check in" so they would know I was there.
I bought a few extra speaker's shirts -- the notion of going through a week with just two shirts is simply too gross to contemplate, in this heat. I will probably wear something else over and change in the restroom
Of course I did not know where it was. Two charming young ladies at information explained to me that the Speaker's Lounge was upstairs; of course the more charming older ladies on the second floor said it was actually downstairs (I admit in both cases that "charming" is being defined in a professional sense based on two points in the Boy Scout Law, helpful, and friendly. The reason why the second group rates higher is that they were the ones who were helpful; at least everyone was friendly!)
Ok, I checked in and then ran into some other speakers I knew (Mike Hernandez and Ken Getz), which is always nice.
Now actually in between these various interactions I have gone back and forth between the Peabody and TechEd. On my thir trip back to TechEd I brought the scooter's charger, realizing that if I didn't I could easily run out of juice from all of distances I have to scoot! I am once again happy I have the scooter as there is no way I would be able to survive this trip otherwise!
I do have two rehearsals to check out the rooms, but my second talk is the last talk on the last day, so the rehearsal is right in the middle of the party on Thursday. I think I'll blow that one off, if the microphones and computers are not working, I am sure someone would have noticed it earlier. :-)
Looking forward to customer contacts, starting soon....