MVP Summit Days 0 and 1
*** SUNDAY ***
I arrived in Seattle at about 9pm Sunday evening for the MVP Summit, which officially started Monday. Seattle did not disappoint - the weather was cold and raining. A $35 cab ride brought me to the Seattle Hilton where I simply checked in and passed out.
By arriving late on Sunday, I missed the Party with Palermo. Jeffery (not Jeff) Palermo hosted an excellent party complete with food and beverage tabs. The $1200 beer tab reportedly ran out at 9:30 but the party went on in some pockets until 4am. I know that Brendon and Heidi left around 12 and Jim Wooley left around 11. Sorry I missed it but I was way too tired from the rest of my trip to even attempt finding the restaurant. BTW - Jeffery reports that the attendance count was 240 people. That's what we had at the last Atlanta Code Camp! Amazing numbers! Free beer really helps.
*** MONDAY ***
The first day of the Summit was really all about networking. I've seen a lot of familiar faces and met some truly nice new people. Atlanta is well represented with Shawn W, Jim W, Brendon S, Eric V, Geoff H, Teo L, and myself.
Before registration actually began, I left my hotel to wander around downtown Seattle. I stopped in the first Starbucks I saw and who did I run into but Chris Williams from Greenville SC. Chris is now employed by Magenic and working on a CSLA project in Dallas. At this same Starbucks, I met George (sorry, I forgot the last name) and Curtis Spangurgh, a CRM MVP from SCG. The four of us wandered around together for a bit and found ourselves at Pike's Market where people were throwing fish around. Lots of fun. Curtis and I had a long conversation about a million topics, especially music. Curtis is the first of many great contacts I've already made at the Summit as I'm currently involved (peripherally) in a CRM project and now I have someone to go to with questions.
After registration, some of the Microsoft groups hosted booths at an expo where you could learn about certifications, licensing, CodePlex, and more. Food and beverages were all over the place.
After the expo, a group of us went with Joe Healy and the contigent of Florida MVPs to a bar on the way to dinner. Here I connected with more people than I can remember the names for. Well, here are a few names - Stan S (I can't remember the rest) and Tom Fuller. Anyway - some good conversations.
Dinner was a gigantic affair sorted by geographic region to help with language barriers. North and Latin America was a huge room, probably 800 or so people. A comedian tried to entertain the room, but people were in general more interested in talking to each other. That and the comedian wasn't very good. There were other rooms set up with entertainment such as linked Xboxes (playing Gears of War - which I dominated EVERY match I participated in), darts (I beat Jim W), and fooseball (Geoff H and I lost to Brendon and Eric V).
After dinner I went to a party at an arcade hosted by SupportSpace. SupportSpace is an Israeli based company which essentially provides web-based helpdesk outsourcing. The games at the arcade (Gameworks) were a lot of fun. Highlights included an Indy 500 racing game where I was in 2nd place (in the running for an Xbox or Zune) until Jim and another guy passed me at the last second, pushing me down to 4th place. I also played Jim and Brendon at a vertical balloon fighting game. You sit in a harness that raises and lowers you up to 20 feet in the air as you try to pop your opponents balloon. Jim won this game too, but only by 1 point. We both creamed Brendon!
It was midnight by the time I got back to my room.