From the Inside Out

I’m back in Vegas for the XXth time. I’ve traveled here so often that I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve been here. Back when I worked in PR, I’d go to Vegas at least 4-5 times a year — always for business, with the exception of one trip with Gary. I guess that’s one of the reasons why traveling to Vegas doesn’t excite me anymore. I mostly associate it with long hours, lots of work, and conferences. I also dread the smokey casinos and hallways. I’m already sneezing like crazy — my allergies can’t handle it.

This time, I’m at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for the annual Cisco user conference, Cisco Live. Over 12,000 people are descending upon Vegas to attend the show. It’s my first time to participate in Cisco Live, and I’m managing all of the Collaboration team’s activities while at the show–not a small feat! It’s going to be a busy week, and everything kicks off on Sunday.

I arrived in Vegas around 5:30 today. The flight was mostly uneventful, but I got an upgrade to first class. That always makes the flight more enjoyable. On the way to the hotel, I thought it was odd when my taxi driver began to slow the vehicle on the freeway. He turned off the a/c and the radio while the car continued to decelerate. Uh oh! He wasn’t slowing the car. The engine had died. Great.

He managed to pull the car over before it stopped completely, but we were parked precariously in a double exit lane without the benefit of a full shoulder. As cars were whizzing past us at 70 mph, the driver tried to restart the car, but it was to no avail. He turned everything off and continued his efforts. Meanwhile, I’m thinking there’s no way this car is going to start again. It was completely dead — and cars were still whizzing by, shaking the taxi as they drove past. It was also getting quite hot. Finally, the driver got on the radio trying to reach the shop and dispatch. The car wasn’t responding. It was time to send another car to pick me up — and a tow truck for the taxi.

While we were waiting, he gave it one more try…it cranked this time! It didn’t start. Another try…it cranked again and started to catch…then…nothing. Another try…this time pumping the gas. Another try and another and finally…it started! I can’t believe it came back to life after being so utterly and completely dead, but it did. Whew, what a relief!

We were back on our way while the driver complained about getting stuck with an old, faulty car. I was just happy we were moving again. I think the car was still having some problems, but it got me to the hotel, so I wasn’t going to complain!

After arriving at the hotel, I met up with a few colleagues to get checked in and get briefed on the status of our events, booth, reception, and meeting rooms. We ended the day with a late dinner and a brief walk through the shops.

Tomorrow the real work…ahem…fun…begins.

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View of the Vegas strip from my hotel room

My home for the next 6 days — pretty boring room for Vegas

The bathroom has a little more pizzaz and a TV, but still doesn’t compare to Caesar’s. My last stay there included a full size circular hot tub in the room.

After four long days with only 4-5 hours of sleep each night, I’m happy to say I survived another VoiceCon. Monday started early with team meetings in advance of the show. After lunch, it was time to join the workshops so I could tweet live from the event by sharing highlights, interesting quotes, and tidbits from the sessions. Later that evening, the show floor opened and the evening reception kicked off. Below are a few pics from the exhibit hall.

The 2010 Booth

TelePresence Room

Members of the team

The view at VoiceCon

Demos, demos, demos

On Tuesday, the live tweeting continued. First from the keynote and then from other workshops and panel discussions. I also had one of the members of my team working with a video crew on the booth capturing interviews, demos and whiteboarding sessions. It was a busy day. In the evening, we held our customer appreciation reception for about 400 customers who were attending the show. After it was over, the team headed to Downtown Disney for a very late dinner at a Cuban restaurant. Before wrapping up the night, we stopped at an Irish restaurant and pub for some entertainment and music. The musicians consisted of one acoustic guitarist and a violinist playing lively Irish songs. On some of the songs, a young woman would even step on the stage and perform a “river dance” along with the music. It was great–and a nice break from the stress of working VoiceCon. Upon returning to the hotel, I had to meet up with the video editors, approve the final cuts, and help upload the videos to our social media sites before falling into bed. I think it was about 3 am before we got it all finished…gotta love working a show.

Video Crew Filming

Our Tweets appearing in the show feed

Working the customer reception

Keynote presentation and demo

On Wednesday, I got up early and repeated it all over again. However, I was happy because it was supposed to be my last day in Orlando. I was booked on the 8:15 pm and was able to upgrade to first class. It was perfect. We boarded the plane like normal, and just when it seemed like we were ready to push away from the gate bridge, I received a call from Gary asking me if my flight had been cancelled. Surprised, I told him no (after all, I was already on the plane and nothing seemed to be wrong). Ten seconds later, I see the pilot grab the microphone. “No, this is not happening,” I thought. But, it was happening. The pilot announced that because of the massive storms in Dallas (which happened to stretch from Chicago to San Antonio), our flight was being cancelled. ARGH! It was the last flight out, so I was stuck in Orlando for another night.

View inside the Orlando airport from the Hyatt Regency Hotel (where I got a last minute room after my flight was cancelled)

Sunrise over the Orlando airport the next morning

Even though flights were still being cancelled on Thursday morning due to the weather the previous night, I was able to catch the 9:30 am flight which put me back in Dallas a little after noon. After arriving back home, I worked the rest of the afternoon and then crashed. It’ll take me a few days to get caught up on sleep, but I’m just happy that I’m home and I survived another VoiceCon!

I made it back from VoiceCon safe and sound in spite of the 40 mile per hour winds and 50+ gusts at DFW airport. My flight was delayed because only two runways were open, but after a bumpy ride we finally touched down and taxied to the gate.

VoiceCon is alot of work. I’m glad to be home, but I’m bringing some good memories back with me. Below is another short video with a few of the highlights from the week.

For me, day two of VoiceCon started with the Cisco keynote given by Padmasree Warrior, Cisco’s Chief Technology Officer.  I watched the session from my hotel room via Cisco’s virtual event portal and sent out live Twitter updates about the keynote.  Isn’t technology great?

Padmasree talked about the future of Collaboration and provided an interesting demonstration showing how doctors could use collaborative technology to provide remote healthcare to patients.

Immediately after the keynote, I ran (well, fast walked) to the booth to start my 6.5 hour shift.  The foot traffic in the exhibit hall was much busier than yesterday.  That was a relief.  There’s nothing I hate worse than being on a booth with no customers. 

A few issues arose with our video blogging portal, so I left the show floor in the middle of the afternoon to get things back in order.  Since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, I also grabbed a quick bite to eat.  Fueling your body is so important, but it’s such a hassle when you’re busy!

After booth duty, I met with our vendor to select the top video blogs of the day.  Everything was going smoothly until we realized there was an issue with the audio/video synch on the videos which would require the vendor to reload all 300 videos onto YouTube…argh!  We decided to make it happen late tonight, but then YouTube took their site down for maintenance.  It’s almost 1:30 am, and it’s still not back up.  I’m sitting here waiting on it so I can fix broken links and set-up the voting area for today’s videos.  I may just have to give up and fix it in the morning.

I didn’t have time to take pictures today, but here’s a short video with some shots from yesterday.

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Day one of VoiceCon is in the books. It was a 16-hour work day starting with early morning meetings and working sessions followed by 6 hours of booth duty including an after-hours reception for analysts and consultants.

It’s now 1:40 am. Since I only got 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night, I’m too tired to write a proper blog.

Tune in tomorrow for a better update including pics and videos from the show.

In the mean time, you can check out short video blogs from VoiceCon here or watch demos here.