Hi All,
Finally getting around to putting down some of my convention memories from this year. I hope I captured some of the excitement and great time that I had, below.
Again, my thanks go out to Wayne Thompson and Belinda Hixon and all the volunteers for another great job. As others have said it was well organized and everything went smoothly.
I am not complaining, but for the 3rd straight year, we missed any refreshments at the Wednesday night reception. I agree that it should be paid for by attendees. Last year we arrived on Wednesday night too late for the reception. This year we had been in town since Saturday, but my wife lost her pills a couple of hours before the reception. We had to contact a doctor through the hotel to call in a prescription to Walgreens and then hike over there and pick it up. By the time we got to the reception, it was too late for refreshments but plenty of time to do some great trading. By the way, she found the pills the next day.
On Thursday, I had to get up early as I was part of the panel of the CyberChipping seminar. I thought the whole seminar went great and that Neal Silverman did an excellent job of moderating it and lining up some great speakers. I then spent about an hour at the convention. For the third time in the last 4 years, I found myself Casino-hopping with both Bob Ginsburgs. We had a great time checking out the newer properties on the strip and never made it back to the convention floor that day. Somehow I was under the impression that the poker tournament was Friday night and missed that on Thursday.
The other days I spent on the convention floor almost all the time it was open. It was wonderful.
It was great seeing friends from around the country that I see each year at the convention. It was great seeing friends from NY/NJ that I see much more often.
Those are both way too many people to mention.
It was great meeting some of my on-line friends in person for the first time, especially: my good friend Don Anderson, Bob Hermans, Rich Figarotta (who I have traded with for years), Jeff Veres, Larry Hollibaugh, John Genualdi and others. Sorry that I still have not met in person some others like: Steve Snowden and Katie Smith.
It was another great convention time for me and I already look forward to June.
Thanks--Alan.