Day 0.5

<cue Film Noir music>

The day started clear and cold. I would say "bright" and cold, but it was only 4:45 AM when I left for the airport, so it was dark. There was frost on my car windows as I made my way to the airport.

Traffic was light, but construction was heavy around O'Hare. The security line was long. Fortunately I had checked in online, so I didn't have to wait for my boarding pass. Still I ran through the B/C tunnel and barely made it before they closed the door.

<end music>

And so began my trip to the SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas. The flight itself was pretty much uneventful, though once I arrived in Vegas I ended up captive in a shuttle while they waited for enough people to show up to fill it.

This is my first time in Las Vegas. Although the conference is officially in Mandalay Bay, most of the hotels on "the strip" are interconnected. I, along with lots of other SharePoint folks, are staying in the Luxor. That's the one that looks like a big black glass pyramid. On the inside, that pyramid is totally hollow. The rooms are arranged in a single "layer" along the wall, so that they have steeply slanted windows looking toward the outside. Inside, on each floor there is an open hallway that looks to the hollow interior. The base is filled with restaurants, theaters, and of course, the casino.

The elevators run up the support columns in each of the four corners. Although they are sealed so that you can't see it, they actually travel "slantways" as they go from the ground floor to the peak.

Getting your Exercise

While the Luxor is nominally "right next to" the Mandalay Bay, and they are connected by an interior walkway, that doesn't mean that they are truly "close". In fact, to get from the Luxor to the conference center, you need to walk a seemingly endless maze - through both hotels' casinos as well as a shopping center. All in all, it takes at least 10 minutes, if not a bit more, to cover if you maintain a brisk pace. Let's just say I'm glad I decided to bring the shoes that are most comfortable for walking rather than sitting around.

The Registration Packet

This year's registration premium is a simple spandex laptop pouch (in your choice of sizes). But hidden inside is something very juicy - a very well prepared booklet describing SharePoint 2010's features and functions (as they exist in current beta builds). I haven't had much chance to read it yet, but let's just say it looks like Microsoft has taken to heart the complaints of SharePoint 2007 not having enough documentation available early on. They are clearly taking steps to ensure that complaint isn't repeated.

Unfortunately, SharePoint 2010 software itself wasn't in there. But, there are still 4 days of "real" conference yet to come, so who knows?

Meeting and Greeting

The great thing about events like this is getting to see, in person, folks you normally only interact with online - or at events like this. ;) In addition to bumping into people throughout the day, you can always be sure of a nice mingle or two. Sunday night, there were two big ones - SharePint, and ShareIndian. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten much sleep over the past three days, so I wasn't really feeling up to leaving the complex, so I missed ShareIndian. I did make it to SharePint briefly, however, and had a number of nice chats before I turned into a pumpkin at around 9:30. (I suspect I was turning into a virtual vegetable long before that.)

So ends my report of the Pre-conference. Stay tuned for more throughout the week!