Orlando Trip
In mid-October, I visited Orlando to attend the Internet Network Management Workshop (INM'08). I recently got a paper accepted there, so the trip was on my advisor's nickel. :-)
I arrived Saturday morning around 10, and got shuttled over to the rental car place to purchase some liberty. After checking in to my hotel, I went to a nice little outlet mall and found a really sharp-looking presentation outfit. The shirt has a beautiful sheen to it, and the pants look great too. All for like $40. I'm starting to understand the appeal of going shopping at a mall. You can find some really stylish clothes. (Man, I never thought I would say that!) I also bought some fudge while I was there, some to thank my advisor for sending me on the trip, and some to give to Tiffany. :-)
I then drove about an hour to the beach. I think it was Cocoa Beach. There were quite a few people there, but it wasn't as crowded as La Jolla Shores. The waves weren't all that great, because the slope was really shallow. I could probably go a couple hundred feet away from the shore line before I was in over my head. But, it was fun. I also got some reading done: Tomorrow's Professor by Richard Reis. That book has really helped me in my academic job search...
Sunday was the day of the workshop. There were only about 20 people there, so it was pretty intimate. It was small enough that people felt free to interrupt presentations with whatever questions they had, which was mostly OK. I got to meet and talk to some interesting, smart people, such as Chuck Kalmanek and Dave Maltz. I was the second-to-last presenter of the day. I think it went pretty well. I was pretty satisfied with my slides, and I think I gave a decent talk.
Afterwards, most of the workshop attendees, as well as people attending another workshop of the same conference, all hung out at the hotel and had hors d'ouvres snacks. Then, a small group, including the aforementioned Chuck and Dave, went out to Downtown Disney (which was right near the conference hotel) and had a beer. Conversation was interesting, mostly about politics. Everybody there (not just the famous figures) was fun to talk to. I particularly enjoyed listening to Ashley, an Australian grad student, because he had such an awesome accent. :-) (He also clearly shared my philosophy of Powerpoint presentations: figures, few words, animations galore...)
My overall impressions of Orlando were pretty negative. It's not an attractive city, and I am not a huge fan of cities anyway. It was inland, flat, not a lot of vegetation, cars, toll roads, etc. Besides, there were Disney World advertisements everywhere. They never let up! At one point there were about 8-10 billboards along the road, every 500 feet. They even had a Disney store in the conference hotel, and behind the hotel front desk there was a nice flat-panel TV showing non-stop Disney advertisements. Man...those marketeers!
I arrived Saturday morning around 10, and got shuttled over to the rental car place to purchase some liberty. After checking in to my hotel, I went to a nice little outlet mall and found a really sharp-looking presentation outfit. The shirt has a beautiful sheen to it, and the pants look great too. All for like $40. I'm starting to understand the appeal of going shopping at a mall. You can find some really stylish clothes. (Man, I never thought I would say that!) I also bought some fudge while I was there, some to thank my advisor for sending me on the trip, and some to give to Tiffany. :-)
I then drove about an hour to the beach. I think it was Cocoa Beach. There were quite a few people there, but it wasn't as crowded as La Jolla Shores. The waves weren't all that great, because the slope was really shallow. I could probably go a couple hundred feet away from the shore line before I was in over my head. But, it was fun. I also got some reading done: Tomorrow's Professor by Richard Reis. That book has really helped me in my academic job search...
Sunday was the day of the workshop. There were only about 20 people there, so it was pretty intimate. It was small enough that people felt free to interrupt presentations with whatever questions they had, which was mostly OK. I got to meet and talk to some interesting, smart people, such as Chuck Kalmanek and Dave Maltz. I was the second-to-last presenter of the day. I think it went pretty well. I was pretty satisfied with my slides, and I think I gave a decent talk.
Afterwards, most of the workshop attendees, as well as people attending another workshop of the same conference, all hung out at the hotel and had hors d'ouvres snacks. Then, a small group, including the aforementioned Chuck and Dave, went out to Downtown Disney (which was right near the conference hotel) and had a beer. Conversation was interesting, mostly about politics. Everybody there (not just the famous figures) was fun to talk to. I particularly enjoyed listening to Ashley, an Australian grad student, because he had such an awesome accent. :-) (He also clearly shared my philosophy of Powerpoint presentations: figures, few words, animations galore...)
My overall impressions of Orlando were pretty negative. It's not an attractive city, and I am not a huge fan of cities anyway. It was inland, flat, not a lot of vegetation, cars, toll roads, etc. Besides, there were Disney World advertisements everywhere. They never let up! At one point there were about 8-10 billboards along the road, every 500 feet. They even had a Disney store in the conference hotel, and behind the hotel front desk there was a nice flat-panel TV showing non-stop Disney advertisements. Man...those marketeers!