I’m currently in Las Vegas for a combination of conferences – starting with BlogWorld Expo this weekend and then the Microsoft SharePoint Conference starting on Monday.
Initially, I was only going to come for the SharePoint Conference – I booked this last spring, and Carrie and I both thought it would be a cool idea to extend the sweet conference rate on the hotel room for the weekend prior, and have a fun little weekend getaway.
Of course, this was BEFORE we knew she would be 6 months pregnant with twins at the time.
Needless to say, the idea of a four hour (each way) flight was NOT appealing to my wife. Not to mention the fact that Vegas just didn’t seem fun for her pregnant state. So I was left on my own. I decided to take advantage of the fact the BlogWorld was happening during that weekend, and take part in some of those events.
I arrived yesterday around noon, and checked into my room at THEHotel. Here’s a quick little video tour of my room:
Before meeting up with my pal Jenn (of Free and Flawed), I played a little blackjack at Mandalay Bay and won a quick fifty bucks. After meeting up with Jenn at her hotel, we hit the convention center and picked up our registrations for the expo. We walked the floor for a bit, picked up some swag, and I talked data center nerdology with a cat from ServerBeach. Oh, and the folks at BlogCatalog gave me a really nice t-shirt.
Jenn has NEVER been to Vegas before, so since we had a little time to kill before the parties that night, we took the monorail (which I’ve never been on before, despite my many, many, MANY visits to this town) to the Strip and I gave her the Matt Stratton tour (which consists mostly of “there’s the hotel where my friend Tom dressed like Elvis and we met three Danish au pairs” and “there’s the hotel we stayed at when my friend Tom convinced us that we could walk down the Strip at 3 AM in January without any coats”. Are you sensing a trend here?) We had a quick bite to eat at the Planet Hollywood tiki bar restaurant (half price apps during happy hour):
Given that the plate of nachos was approximately the same size as Jenn, I think we might have over-estimated our requirements.
After our hearty repast of nachos and hot dogs, I headed back to my hotel. I remembered seeing the monorail from my hotel window, so I figured it couldn’t be too far.
I was so very wrong.
I left the monorail at the MGM Grand. After walking about 3/4 of a mile to actually get outside, I looked up and saw…way in the distance…my hotel.
It took me almost an hour to get back to my hotel after leaving the monorail (if you include the time it took to walk through MGM Grand). The “monorail” I had seen from my window was the shorter one that runs between Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and the Excalibur.
Needless to say, for the rest of the week I plan on taking cabs to and from my hotel.
After a quick video chat with my wife (and Scout!) I headed down to JET at the Mirage for the Opening Night party for BlogWorld. It might come as a surprise to you, but I’m not the most extroverted person in the world. I do VERY poorly at networking events like this when I don’t know anyone. But I had made it my mission to make sure I talked to someone BESIDES Jenn all night.
Eventually, I actually DID succeed at this. I met a bunch of cool new folks, including @dan360man and @Krynsky, and the night finished up at a small bar in the Wynn, where we had quite the geeky conversation about topics including Agile, how IT can become a “partner” for the business, SharePoint vs Drupal, and whether or not those hot girls walking around the lobby were, indeed, prostitutes.
Today I’m planning to play a little cards this morning, and then spend the afternoon at the remarkable pools here at Mandalay Bay. I’m also keeping my eyes peeled for celebrity sightings, as tonight at my hotel, Justin Timberlake is having some kind of big charity event, so I’m hoping to see someone famous.
Besides Joel Oleson.