It's been around 48 hours since I've been back from Seattle now and I'm still struggling to get used to UK time. I had a great time over there and although I was keen to get back home getting up at 7am this morning just didn't seem as exciting as last week.
I've been chatting to most of the SharePoint MVPs for nearly 12 months, but apart from Steve I haven't really met any of the others. This week put that in order though as they had to put up with me for 6 whole days! I decided the first day would be when I'd get most of my drinking done as Monday wasn't an official conference day. By 10pm on Sunday night I was a complete mess and falling asleep in my chair. Luckily people remarked the next day that I was a quiet drunk which I suppose is better than being a loud and obnoxious one! So Monday morning arrived and sure enough I had a stinking hangover! Lawrence had organised paintballing for us all which meant an early start. I managed to drag my sorry self down to the car and then we arrived at an army base. Everyone needed photo ID to get into the base which of course I didn't have. Steve was pissing himself laughing as I handed my paper driving license to the army guy behind the desk and it fell apart in his hand! Alas there was no photo on that Id and it looked like I was in for a taxi ride home. Fortunately Adam, who'd already gone through the gates, is in the Army so he was able to come back and get me straight past all the guards. Thanks Adam!
Here's the pic of us all before we played.
I'm hiding at the back somewhere feeling bad J
I managed 2 games, but after eating a Snickers and drinking Diet Coke I was promptly sick. I thought I'd managed to get away with nobody seeing it but Andrew Connell was laughing at me later that day. I think everyone was pretty impressed I managed to carry on playing paintball with such a bad hangover – us Brits are made of strong stuff you know. It wasn't until around 4pm that I started to feel myself again and required some proper food.
Tuesday saw the first main day of the conference. I went to the keynote by Bill Gates. During the rest of the day Todd and I ended up working on BDC Meta Man back at the hotel. This week was the first time we'd actually met which was a bit weird after working together for the past 6 months or so. We managed to get a new release out as well which was pretty cool. Here's Todd working away in our very first office.
It seems a shame we don't get to work together in the same room more often as I think we'd really get a lot of really cool stuff done.
The rest of the week was full of interesting stuff which I can't comment on I'm afraid. Actually the one piece I can link to is the SharePoint will hopefully be DoD 5015.2 certified sometime during the summer. Very cool stuff.
The final thing to report is that I bought a Microsoft Zune. I've been wanting something to watch Channel 9 videos on for ages, and as I was over in the US, not getting a Zune seemed like a crime. Especially since they won't be out until Christmas this year and no doubt will be more than the £130 I paid for mine. Expect a review coming soon. There's tons more I could write, but to be honest a few people have already done a better job, so I'll just link to them instead! J
http://www.cjvandyk.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=81
http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2007/03/17/6011.aspx
http://www.wildwires.com/Blog/PermaLink,guid,86f2552f-4de5-4826-b575-96a8c2597e18.aspx
http://bobfox.net/spblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=29