From the Inside Out

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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Tonight our church hosted a “red carpet” event for all the volunteers. It was a fun evening, but don’t be mislead by the “red carpet” description — it was not a formal affair. The organizers were secretive about the agenda so we had no idea what to expect when we arrived. Most of us assumed that it would be a dinner at the church, but upon arrival we learned that we were being ushered to some secret location for food and activities.

I have to be honest. I’m not a big fan of secret surprises. I tend to avoid events that don’t provide an agenda. It’s just not my thing — I like being informed and knowing what to expect in advance. However, it was neat that the church was (1) trying to do something different and (2) trying to create a sense of excitement. I applaud them for that. They were very creative and worked hard to honor their volunteers.

After hanging out in the “red carpet” waiting area, we began our adventure on chartered buses. It was fun listening to all the wild guesses about where we were heading. As we turned onto 35 from 635, it became obvious to most of the group that we were on our way to Speed Zone.

After an informal buffet dinner, we received putt putt golf certificates and event cards for games and go kart rides. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to ride the go karts. Even though I had dressed casual, it wasn’t casual enough (dang surprises…wish I’d known it was outside “sporting event” casual). I didn’t want to flash anyone in my short skirt while driving around the track, so I declined to participate which stunk because they’ve got some fun tracks. I also didn’t have my glasses (another side effect of the “surprise”) so I couldn’t play any video games. For those who don’t know, my glasses keep me from getting migraines when playing video games. I know it’s weird, but the graphics totally freak out my eyes.

Now that I’ve whined about the things I couldn’t do, I have to say that I had a good time. It was nice to hang out with our friends and fellow volunteers. We have such a great group of people. They are amazing, and I love them all. Seriously, you won’t find finer, more dedicated people anywhere else.

The ALC staff did a fabulous job of organizing a special event. It was a nice treat. I hope it becomes an annual thing, though I could do without the surprise factor.

BTW, for those who are interested, Xander is doing much better today. The swelling is going down, and he is recovering nicely. Thanks for the kind comments and well wishing.