New Orleans Conference Day 2

I am really enjoying the Tech Ed conference. It's kind of like how I always wished that college could be. Take little bits of this, little bits of that, learning a broad variety of things without having to work too hard at it. Because sometimes it does feel a lot like a series of university lectures- except that there are no tests, no required readings, and no homework.



It's pretty ironic, then, that I'm actually taking far more notes than I ever took at school. I want to capture as much as I can in blog format, to make this experience "worth it." What I'm coming to realize today is that this is a marathon and I'm working entirely too hard. I can slow down just a little: not go to a session in every time slot, not write novels on my blog that few people will probably get through anyway. It's a great theory but I don't know if I can make myself do it.

Amusing anecdote from this morning. There were absolutely ZERO sessions I wanted to go to in the 8am timeslot today, so I got to the conference intentionally late. I slowly ate some of their incredibly bad continental breakfast (I'm ordering room service tomorrow morning, I'm sick of sad little bagels), and then went to one of the public terminals to check for room changes. Afterwards I looked down at the taskbar clock and noticed it was 945, the time of the session session start. How had this happened?! How long was I eating a bagel?! I walked briskly to where I was supposed to be and sat down at the session already in progress. It made no sense whatsoever- they were talking about something was very far removed from the topic. I checked the room. Right room. I checked the session start time. Right session start time. I walked out and studied the video board. Right room, right session, no room change. Finally I dug out my cell phone and looked at the time.

Yep. Those stupid computer terminals had apparently been set up elsewhere and shipped here or something- they were all the an hour ahead.

The day improved from there and I enjoyed many sessions (see other blog if you want but it's going to be mostly technical over there today). But it was a rocky start!