macdobhran (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
macdobhran) wrote2007-02-04 02:04 pm
macdobhran) wrote2007-02-04 02:04 pm
Entry tags:
How I spent my winter vacation
As most of you know, two weeks ago I went to Orlando, FL to attend an Lotus Notes and Domino* professional conference. I left at Oh-My-God-It's-Early o'clock Sunday morning. Arriving in Orlando I realized why I don't live in FL. It was 80 degrees and 60% humidity. In January.
Since I was staying at a Walt Disney World (WDW) resort I was able to hop a Disney express shuttle for a free ride to my destination. I got checked in easy enough and then began the hike to my room. And yes, it was a hike; about 1/4 mile according to my pedometer.
The room was nice enough but there were a couple things I had issue with. For one, it costs $10/24 consecutive hours to access the internet. Mostly I didn't care because my company was paying for it all but the princliple of it bothered me. So usually once I had signed on I just left my computer running so I wouldn't have to pay again a few hours later if I wanted to get online. The other thing that bothered me was the fact that the data port was on the table in a corner of the room. That's all well and fine in itself, but the only exposed plug was by the bed. On the other side of the room.
I changed my clothes and headed over to the conference hotel via the free shuttle service -- which picked up by the front entrance, natch. (I was going to be doing A LOT of walking in FL.) Once I got registered for the conference I took some time to walk around. It was a really nice resort with several pools, including one with a waterfall! I attended one class in the afternoon and then met up with my coworkers for the Opening Party. Free food, free booze, loud music, and dancing; this would pretty much set the theme for our entire week in FL. Since this was the biggest and most attended party, there were free video games (old school arcade types), pool tables, poker tables, football on big t.v.'s, and not enough seating. Oh, and did I mention that all of this was held outside? By the "beach". Between the waterfall grotto and a kidney bean-shaped pool? Yeah, it was schweeet.
Monday opened with the General Opening session. They had a band playing while everyone came in and got seated. I didn't much care for them myself. Once the session got started though I was really impressed with what's coming up in the Lotus world. Then came the keynote speaker, Neil Armstrong. I didn't expect him to be that interesting of a speaker but I was pleasantly surprised as I was completely riveted to his speech.
Next we all broke out into different sessions until lunch. I took one other session in the afternoon and then I headed back to my hotel. I changed clothes and headed to Downtown Disney, via the riverboat, to do some shopping. Yeah, there is a Harley Davidson store there. Shaddup. I spent the evening walking around and trying to stay within my budget. When I got back to my resort, I grabbed a sandwich from one of the restaurants and ate in my room while trying to catch up online.
Tuesday was more sessions in the morning and afternoon and then we decided to hit as many of the free vendor parties as we could. The first one was held by TeamStudio and it was pretty small. So we left there after grabbing a couple drinks and some finger food and headed over to the Blackberry party. Unfortunately that one ended soon after we arrived. Too bad too because they had some really good food. The next party we weren't supposed to be attending because it was thrown by IBM for their Business Partners (BP). Luckily one of the IBM sales reps (female) had taken a shine to my boss (straight male) on Sunday night. He wasn't really interested in her (he has a girlfriend) but he smooth talked some tickets to the BP shindig out of her. It was alright but I thought the Blackberry party was better.
When the IBM party ended at 10:30 PM we all decided that we didn't want to stop the party. So we (coworkers, IBM chick, and new friend KJ--a guy from MN that we sort of adopted for the week) headed over to a piano bar. They were charging a $10 cover and since we knew the company wasn't going to reimburse us, we went across the street to a dance club that was free. I did dance for a few songs but mostly I sat and purse watched (with a beer, of course). I did get crazy enough to buy us all a round of tequila (which became our cry for the week. TEQUILA!) to celebrate our team bonding. We ended up closing that place down and I didn't get back to my hotel until 3:00 AM. Needless to say, Wednesday morning was NOT a welcome sight.
I got up a couple hours after breakfast and headed back to the conference. There weren't any classes that I really wanted to attend that morning so I spent a couple hours working the vendor floor. Doood. I got quite the haul of swag. I gave most of it to a coworker that couldn't come with us but I did keep a few of the cooler pieces (like a cordless USB travel mouse from EMC) for myself. I attended some more sessions in the afternoon but the real fun came Wednesday night. IBM bought out Animal Kingdom from 8:00 - 10:30 PM just for Lotusphere attendees. The bad part was that a cold front had moved in and it was raining and about 50 degrees. Not a big deal when you're at home but when living out of a suitcase dressing for the evening can become an issue.
I slept late Thursday since I had to check out and catch my plane early that afternoon. When I got back to Dulles, it was snowing big, fat flakes.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cellymcfae picked me up and we headed for the comforts of home.
* - Lotus is IBM's email, scheduling and database product that I support. Think of it as Microsoft's Outlook and Office suite (including Access) all in one product.
Since I was staying at a Walt Disney World (WDW) resort I was able to hop a Disney express shuttle for a free ride to my destination. I got checked in easy enough and then began the hike to my room. And yes, it was a hike; about 1/4 mile according to my pedometer.
The room was nice enough but there were a couple things I had issue with. For one, it costs $10/24 consecutive hours to access the internet. Mostly I didn't care because my company was paying for it all but the princliple of it bothered me. So usually once I had signed on I just left my computer running so I wouldn't have to pay again a few hours later if I wanted to get online. The other thing that bothered me was the fact that the data port was on the table in a corner of the room. That's all well and fine in itself, but the only exposed plug was by the bed. On the other side of the room.
I changed my clothes and headed over to the conference hotel via the free shuttle service -- which picked up by the front entrance, natch. (I was going to be doing A LOT of walking in FL.) Once I got registered for the conference I took some time to walk around. It was a really nice resort with several pools, including one with a waterfall! I attended one class in the afternoon and then met up with my coworkers for the Opening Party. Free food, free booze, loud music, and dancing; this would pretty much set the theme for our entire week in FL. Since this was the biggest and most attended party, there were free video games (old school arcade types), pool tables, poker tables, football on big t.v.'s, and not enough seating. Oh, and did I mention that all of this was held outside? By the "beach". Between the waterfall grotto and a kidney bean-shaped pool? Yeah, it was schweeet.
Monday opened with the General Opening session. They had a band playing while everyone came in and got seated. I didn't much care for them myself. Once the session got started though I was really impressed with what's coming up in the Lotus world. Then came the keynote speaker, Neil Armstrong. I didn't expect him to be that interesting of a speaker but I was pleasantly surprised as I was completely riveted to his speech.
Next we all broke out into different sessions until lunch. I took one other session in the afternoon and then I headed back to my hotel. I changed clothes and headed to Downtown Disney, via the riverboat, to do some shopping. Yeah, there is a Harley Davidson store there. Shaddup. I spent the evening walking around and trying to stay within my budget. When I got back to my resort, I grabbed a sandwich from one of the restaurants and ate in my room while trying to catch up online.
Tuesday was more sessions in the morning and afternoon and then we decided to hit as many of the free vendor parties as we could. The first one was held by TeamStudio and it was pretty small. So we left there after grabbing a couple drinks and some finger food and headed over to the Blackberry party. Unfortunately that one ended soon after we arrived. Too bad too because they had some really good food. The next party we weren't supposed to be attending because it was thrown by IBM for their Business Partners (BP). Luckily one of the IBM sales reps (female) had taken a shine to my boss (straight male) on Sunday night. He wasn't really interested in her (he has a girlfriend) but he smooth talked some tickets to the BP shindig out of her. It was alright but I thought the Blackberry party was better.
When the IBM party ended at 10:30 PM we all decided that we didn't want to stop the party. So we (coworkers, IBM chick, and new friend KJ--a guy from MN that we sort of adopted for the week) headed over to a piano bar. They were charging a $10 cover and since we knew the company wasn't going to reimburse us, we went across the street to a dance club that was free. I did dance for a few songs but mostly I sat and purse watched (with a beer, of course). I did get crazy enough to buy us all a round of tequila (which became our cry for the week. TEQUILA!) to celebrate our team bonding. We ended up closing that place down and I didn't get back to my hotel until 3:00 AM. Needless to say, Wednesday morning was NOT a welcome sight.
I got up a couple hours after breakfast and headed back to the conference. There weren't any classes that I really wanted to attend that morning so I spent a couple hours working the vendor floor. Doood. I got quite the haul of swag. I gave most of it to a coworker that couldn't come with us but I did keep a few of the cooler pieces (like a cordless USB travel mouse from EMC) for myself. I attended some more sessions in the afternoon but the real fun came Wednesday night. IBM bought out Animal Kingdom from 8:00 - 10:30 PM just for Lotusphere attendees. The bad part was that a cold front had moved in and it was raining and about 50 degrees. Not a big deal when you're at home but when living out of a suitcase dressing for the evening can become an issue.
I slept late Thursday since I had to check out and catch my plane early that afternoon. When I got back to Dulles, it was snowing big, fat flakes.
cellymcfae picked me up and we headed for the comforts of home.* - Lotus is IBM's email, scheduling and database product that I support. Think of it as Microsoft's Outlook and Office suite (including Access) all in one product.
no subject
And similar to the conferences Gerry has gone to - IDUG.
I was lucky enough to go when it was in San Diego - and IBM took a bunch of people (including us) to Sea World. They took people to Disney Quest when Gerry went to the IDUG in Florida.
In recent years the parties have been fewer and less elaborate, however.
Gerry usually comes home with tons of t-shirts, frisbees, computer goodies (like USB "bobs").
no subject
no subject
no subject
Did you actually go in any of the parks?
no subject
Next year will be different though. I'm going for the week.
no subject
did you learn why it locks up at random intervals causing me to have to reboot my entire machine because "it didn't shut down properly" like it was MY FAULT or something?
hehehe... probably not. don't mind me. i have issues. ;)
glad you had a productive time and TEQUILA!
no subject
no subject