The APA Conference in Vegas

OK, to put it plainly - this sucks! After being on the road with no firm schedule the past 12 days, I had trouble getting up for my 9 am session this morning. I left my room about 9:15, but it took me OVER AN HOUR to find the registration (which was actually even further than Paris at Ballys, but of course at the far north end of Ballys. Then I find out that the session I signed up for (Preparing and Delivering Geo-Enabled Content for Citizen Participation) was the ONLY session that started at 8:30 this morning, not 9 am, so I was almost 2 hours late for my 3.5 hour session. On a positive note, this session was not exactly how it was advertised, but a thinly veiled marketing demo for Limehouse Software's Content Management System. Upon first seeing a free 10 minute demo at last year's conference in Philadelphia, I was impressed and urged my organization to invest in this product for our citizen outreach component of our Long Range Plan. Now, after paying $35 for the full-blown demo, I am glad that we did not invest in their product. For organizations that do not have a capable, technical staff and has lots of money to flush down the toilet, this is a great product. But my organization does not have money to burn, and we have a number of great technical people on staff who are able to replicate (or dare I say improve upon) the features available in this non-customizable application (See Barry, I just saved the Commission thousands of dollars!).

With only an hour for lunch (and not wanting to be late for my 4 hour afternoon session, I decided to forgo the long lines and overpriced restaurants in Paris, and ventured out onto Las Vegas BLVD. I almost went to the Harley-Davidson Cafe, but then I thought if they found out I drove a Vespa scooter, they'd probably kick me out. So I ended up grabbing a quick bite at the 7-11 which I ate sitting next to this huge trash can outside of the place (there are no places to sit outside in Vegas -- probably because they want you to sit down inside at one of their slots). This is NOT the 2.5 day stress-free rest from traveling that I was expecting! The afternoon session was good (on Management for Planners) even though part of it was review for me. Ballys provided free coffee in all their sessions, but Paris did not, so at the first break, I went out to buy a $3.75 cup of coffee from JJ's Boulangerie (I thought I deserved a free refill @ that price so i went back and grabbed one which I am now enjoying cold since MGM cannot afford to include microwaves in their luxurious rooms).

It's 8pm local time, but my body is still on EST, so it fells like bedtime for me. I need to bring stuff to the car, since I need to check out tomorrow around 7:30 am then drive over to Paris and be at the keynote reception which starts at 8:30. Jack Dangermond is one of the keynote speakers, and I'm curious on what he has to say about Google Maps, Google Earth and all of the competition his company now has (and please clarify for me if your online mapping solution is still a viable product). Then, perhaps off to find a quick bite to eat and if there is any energy left in me, to check out an anti-Vegas bar not too far from my hotel (recommended by Colleen, of course). Here's hoping that tomorrow is less stressful than today. Oh yeah, $14/day for internet, so I will not be on for a few days. I'll try to update again sometime in Los Angeles later this week.