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- hotel - most excellent. Everything it was billed to be.
- hotel bar - rather small, but cozy. Micro brewery within one block!
- odds are running 40-60 on a certain WebmasterWorld member making it into the states ;-)
- Top new SEO tips and tricks...as if...you had to be there ;-)
Definitely sounds like a blast though. Matt said that he picked up several new ideas for improvements, and that he really enjoyed meeting and talking to so many people. He said he even ran into webmasters on the street and talked to them, and met a webmaster on the shuttle to the airport and talked to him the whole way. :)
A few of my thoughts from a first timer's perspective:
It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It was sooo unlike any other conference I have been to.
As much as I tried to mingle, I didn't meet all the people I wanted to, however, the people I did were all great.
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As I was writing this, I was trying to determine the best way to describe it to someone who has not been. This is the best I can come up with:
Remember that conference you went to that was all blah blah blah, hot air, hot air, and you came home and thought, "why did I even go at all" and then you found out later that all the real "action" went on after the conference at a Pub down the street and you smack your head and think, "Doh, I walked right by that Pub on the way to my hotel room".
Well, take all the fluff/blah blah from that conference, throw it out, and proceed directly to that Pub. =)
Man who ever voted for me, you'll get a call 7 in the morning next "con"
Really had a blast, there was so much stuff which was fun so it's hard to mention specifics
Best Quote: Someone - "Are you a crackhead"
And the person who got the question was not happy.
Really had a blast on sunday morning too.
The "toy" of the moment seemed to be PDA's (Yeah i know rockpeople ;) )
Going to the doctor to see if i catched SARS, but i think i will be fine :)
And it was good food too, so conclusion was that it was a great event.
Will try to get some sleep now, have been up a bit over 30 hours so i am a bit tired.
"the "pre-show" activities could have been announced somewhere online (as the hotel had 8 bars, and many people just opted for other restraunts, so when somebody arrived it was a matter of asking everybody you see "are you webmaster" (I never knew that question could get such strange looks...)"
Ha ha... yes... the 8 bars filled with college kids and some "sparkling" Kareoke ;).
"For anyone who reads all of these posts and thinks that it couldn't possibly be as good as it sounds, you're somewhat right, it's better than any of us could possibly explain."
Exactly... couldn't have said it better.
Rae
And was anyone else amazed at the number of teeny boppers that descended on the hotel each night? I think that is one of the few hotels I have been in that has managed to turn their "night spot" into something popular for more than just the guests. Their club upstairs held 1500 people.
And what can you say about that Karaoke singer - just way too small of a place for that loud of a singer like that!
Jen
Winooski -
sorry i didn't get to meet you in person, (so little time, too many beers -next time) but I did finally get to meet Laisha -
just so you know, she's not a real Maine-ah - she's what we call "from away" ;)
even if you've lived here as long as I have, you're still "from away" if you weren't born here:)
Seems we had almost as much dog chat as web chat. A special thank you to all we met and had time to exchange thoughts and ideas with, and here's hoping we'll both make it to the next one in the UK.
A couple of memorable quotes or conversations from the weekend. Scott "I was robbed" and the philosophical conversation about his being robbed. And something along the lines of crackheads have more fun!
The people that made the difference for me: Go60Guy, absolutely amazing - we kept running into each other right up to our gate at the airport, and he never stopped amazing me with his knowledge; JustTrying, if you need someone who knows how to ask the right questions - Jason is your man; AmericanBulldog and Wife Lesli (who better get a nick here soon!), great enthusiasm and incredible dedication - and even being Canadian, they just rock!; and of course the rest of our table who I'm just having a hard time remembering nicks, Brett from Nashville, Jim, ProfitPuppy and Jon, you all made the conference incredible for me.
And a special thank you to Roger for sharing a cab with me to the airport, even after I had a coughing fit that probably made him think I had SARS, especially after he started coughing as well! I think I'm okay now!
Oh and one other special thank you to the guys in the lobby for handling our special visitor - Brooklyn is represented!
Most amazing item of the weekend: Watching the driverless car slam into the motorcycle in front of Dominic's.
All in all the weekend *snif* actually made it worth losing my beloved coffee mug. (No worries though, I've got a new one on order today. ;) )