Live(EDIT:LATE) from Seattle : Global MVP Summit 2005
I got some sort of cold from the weather change maybe and have felt under the weather the last day or two...
Tues: I left Tuesday from Birmingham airport and arrived in Seattle at 5:30PM PST. Shortly after checking into the W, I met up with
Don Sorcenelli, Eric Hicks,
Steven "FYI Guy" Hughs,
Mauricio Fretias, and Robert Levy at Gameworks. Gameworks is a huge arcade with many very interactive games. I finished 3rd at Daytona in the 6 person live head to head race. After catching a late dinner, we headed back to the Hotel. On the way back, we ran into
Shawna Kelly. Shawna, Mauricio and I returned to Gameworks and killed another $30, but it was great. Fast foward, 3:30am... cabbie drops us off at Denny's and we have breakfast and return to our rooms at 5:30am to get some rest before registration.
Wed: For some unforeseen reasons, I was a tad late getting up to catch the shuttle to Microsoft's campus to register for the summit, but it was ok... most everyone was too and we had to wait an hour for a shuttle bus to campus. This started a trend for this day, waiting on busses. After I registered, I ran through the booths set up for us (all the swag was gone) and then ran into
Rey Flores and
Jack Cook and we decided to run to the Microsoft Company store to get some bargains. We wait for a bus and finally get to the store. I purchased Microsoft Student for my daughter and a new game (Can't remember name) and a "Geek" Tshirt for myself. Time to go outside and wait on a bus back to main conference center AGAIN. We wait 30 more minutes to get shuttled over and then we wait 30 more minutes for a bus back to the hotel. ( Waiting Time so far : 2+hrs) Now we are on the bus and its almost time for Dinner at Qwest Field. We arrive at the W 30 minutes past time to eat, so I run upstairs, change and rush out to WAIT FOR ANOTHER BUS.... 30 Minutes later, I am on a bus to Qwest field with Shawna Kelly and Jason Dunn. The bus driver drops us off at the wrong place and we walk for what seemed to be miles to get to the dinner. We were just in time for them to start serving. Nothing too fancy to mention about the food, but it was good. I sat with some folks I didnt know and some I did;
Chris DeHerra,
Jason Dunn, Shawna Kelley, Rey Flores,
Ed Hansberry,
Janek Parekh, and Mike Temporale. Shorty after dinner, I took a shuttle back to the hotel.
Thur: Free Breakfast at the W restaraunt, oh boy.... $35 for some of the worst breakfast food I've ever eaten. The bus waiting situation seems to have been fixed, shortly after breakfast, I was on the bus to the keynote presentations (Lori Moore, Steve Balllmer Kevin Johnson, and Jim Allchin). I showed up just in time to see the best public speaker on earth, Steve Ballmer. After the speakers we headed over to the main conference center to listen to a few sessions. ( Vista Beta and a mixed meeting with Mobile Device MVPs and Embedded MVPs) We stayed on campus and headed to building 117's cafeteria for a dinner with our group. Dinner was great and it was amazing to meet all the Mobile Device MVPs I had never met before. ( Too many to list ) Fast Foward : Back to the Hotel.
Fri: Up early, I don't want to be late to breakfast on campus at the conference center. I ran into Ed Hansberry and I got some free consulting on Exchange Server. Friday has little I can actually talk about, but we ended the day at 5pm with a session with program leads and developers of Windows Mobile and provided some input for future versions of Windows Mobile as well as some answer to other current questions we had. I felt a good vibe from the team, as they seemed to be taking notes and some seemed to genuinely care about our concerns and requests. We shuttled back to the Hotel then headed over to the MVP Party at the EMD/Sci Fi Museum. Decent Food, Free Drinks, Boooorrrrinnngggg..... (I don't drink) I left real early(8:30pm) and went to my room to pack. After packing, I layed down to watch "Ghost Whisperer" on TV and I fell asleep (didn't mean to). Apparently some guys knocked on my door at some point, so I must have been dead to the world because I didnt even hear it......
Sat: Since I have a relatively early flight, I decided not to try to attend the morning sessions on campus. Instead I woke up early and saw a couple guys off on the bus and then went shopping for souveneirs for my family. I got some shirts and some prints from a local artist down at the Pike Place Market. Now here I sit waiting for my shuttle to the airport.....
the end
PS. It was great to socialize with fellow MVPs, It was nice to meet Andrew Brown, our MVP Lead, and I really enjoyed learning about coming enhancements, fixes, etc with the Windows Mobile platform!
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