Boston: Day 2
Today was the second day of the conference. I got about as much sleep as the night before so I was still dragging pretty badly. But at least because I blew off the first session I was able to catch the water taxi to the convention center. That was really fun, fast and a little cheaper. It turns out the water taxi goes to the airport too so I might return that way.
The first session I attended was probably one of the best sessions at these conferences I've ever seen. The detail was amazing and I couldn't write fast enough to keep up with all the information. Hopefully, this slide deck makes it into the post-convention packet. Sometimes they strip out the ones with useful data in them. That, of course, set the rest of the day up for failure. The second session was okay but not particularly helpful. The third session was about the same. The fourth session was a hands-on workshop so it was kind of neat but it wasn't on anything that was really a big deal. I did get to complain about something mostly unrelated to the subject of the workshop to one of the product managers for the relevant product so that was handy. The final session of the day was a complete disappointment. It had billed itself as an "advanced" level session (like the first one) but wasn't anywhere near as in-depth.
For dinner we went outside the city to Kowloon, a mixed-Asian restaurant that came highly recommended by a colleague of my account rep. The food was quite good and the staff were funny and accommodating. Unfortunately, the bar that also came recommended was lame and we ended up calling it a night fairly early (for us).
Of course, getting back to my room earlyish just meant I had time to work on all the things people decided they needed from me while I'm out of the office. I still only got one of the two things that had been prioritized for me to do done because it took all night. It was the more important one, I think. The other can wait. There's a bunch of other emails in which people have been asking for stuff but they didn't prompt my manager to call me during today's sessions so they can wait a few more days. On the plus side, it looks like my other trips have been delayed so next week won't be AS much of a scramble as I'd expected.
Once again, I'm not getting to bed before 4am. At least tomorrow's morning session is even less useful than the one I bailed on this morning. And there's nothing interesting until almost 11am. The afternoon sessions have the potential to be good, though. Tomorrow night is also the convention party at Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
The first session I attended was probably one of the best sessions at these conferences I've ever seen. The detail was amazing and I couldn't write fast enough to keep up with all the information. Hopefully, this slide deck makes it into the post-convention packet. Sometimes they strip out the ones with useful data in them. That, of course, set the rest of the day up for failure. The second session was okay but not particularly helpful. The third session was about the same. The fourth session was a hands-on workshop so it was kind of neat but it wasn't on anything that was really a big deal. I did get to complain about something mostly unrelated to the subject of the workshop to one of the product managers for the relevant product so that was handy. The final session of the day was a complete disappointment. It had billed itself as an "advanced" level session (like the first one) but wasn't anywhere near as in-depth.
For dinner we went outside the city to Kowloon, a mixed-Asian restaurant that came highly recommended by a colleague of my account rep. The food was quite good and the staff were funny and accommodating. Unfortunately, the bar that also came recommended was lame and we ended up calling it a night fairly early (for us).
Of course, getting back to my room earlyish just meant I had time to work on all the things people decided they needed from me while I'm out of the office. I still only got one of the two things that had been prioritized for me to do done because it took all night. It was the more important one, I think. The other can wait. There's a bunch of other emails in which people have been asking for stuff but they didn't prompt my manager to call me during today's sessions so they can wait a few more days. On the plus side, it looks like my other trips have been delayed so next week won't be AS much of a scramble as I'd expected.
Once again, I'm not getting to bed before 4am. At least tomorrow's morning session is even less useful than the one I bailed on this morning. And there's nothing interesting until almost 11am. The afternoon sessions have the potential to be good, though. Tomorrow night is also the convention party at Faneuil Hall Marketplace.