I was woken from a deep sleep at 5:00 AM, from a certain somebody on Eastern Standard Time. My new glasses are finally in. The abrupt awakening made me feel like I was in a fog for most of the day. I tried to get a little more sleep before the alarm went off, but that was wishful thinking.
I hoped into the shower and got ready for the day. After dressing, I headed over to the conference center to grab my breakfast. Not staying long, I headed back to the hotel to prepare for the days session as well as tomorrows sessions. Feeling confident, but still in a daze, I headed back to the conference center, hauling my backpack.
I didn’t want to eat too much for lunch, since my Reflection talk was immediately following. I took the opportunity to arrive one hour before my talk, giving me plenty of time to set up my laptop, adjust the font sizes and take some pictures of the room. I will have more information on where to find some of the pictures I took while at BorCon.
Several people arrived early, and we talked a bit. It was nice to get to know the audience beforehand, it certainly helped to keep the typical nervousness that sets in just before giving a talk.
Show time! I began the presentation promptly at 2:00 PM to a room full of about 350 to 400 people. A lot of great questions were asked, which really helps to keep the audience from sleeping, especially right after lunch! 😉 The presentation went extremely well. In fact, after it was over, I was energized – the fog had been lifted. Giving presentations can be addicting, as they give me an adrenaline rush! The room monitors allowed me to look at the feedback and overall it looks like people really enjoyed the talk. I’ll get the official results in a month or two for all of my sessions.
Later in the day, Carey Jenson and Nick Hodges came up to me and gave me thumbs up on my presentation as well.
I went back to the hotel to drop off my laptop, then back to the conference center for the special event. This year, the special event was a visit to the The Tech Museum of Innovation . Located around the Museum, where various stations of different kinds of food. Italian sausage, bratwurst, Chinese Chicken Salad, Fish & Chicken tacos, Philadelphia Steak Sandwiches, some kind of noodles and probably other foods that I missed. Then the deserts were brought out. Sugar rush! King Dongs, Twinkies, caramel Apples, Rice Krispy Treats, bubble gum, taffy, lollipops, candy, and more. Yummy!
The museum, while very cool, seemed to be geared more for younger kids then us geeks, but they had a few things that kept us interested. There was a huge line to try the Segway. I decided not to wait in the line, since I wanted to get back to the hotel so I could prepare more for Wednesday’s sessions. On the way out of the door, we were given a nice T-Shirt on which Microsoft (the sponsor of the special event) thanked Borland for supporting Microsoft’s’ operating systems. Located on the back of the T-Shirt was a chronological listing of every product Borland has shipped in its twenty years. Nice touch!
In the hotel, I wrote a few more examples for my threading talk and turned in early. Only one more day left of BorCon!