[DarthBBerry]

So here’s the blog-like post that I’ve been meaning to do since I got back.

Sunday 5/6/07
Arrive in Orlando and the hotel. As I check in the Marriott tells me that I need a credit card to pay for the room. Huh? I thought that my employer already paid for the room with the company credit card when the reservation was made. Nope. I had to give them my card. First thing in the room is e-mail my secretary and plead my case. Luckily she was working Sunday and we got the payment straightened out. Head downstairs and register; get my swag bag of goodies. Go back to the room and sift through it. From what the WES 2007 book said, there was supposed to be a copy of Seeing What’s Next by Clayton Christensen. Nope, not in there. Also the groovy pedometer by Cingular/AT&T was used and busted. Back downstairs and get them swapped out at the WES registration desk. Back to the room and drop my replacement swag. Got a hold of bertiebassett via Blackberry Messenger; found out he was at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Went to the concierge desk and purchased an After 2pm ticket for Universal. Hailed a taxi to Universal. Had lunch at Islands of Adventure, bought a t-shirt at Jurassic Park and tried to ride a few rides. Each time I got in line, the weather turned bad with thunder or something mechanical broke on the ride. It was like I was cursed at each ride I went to. Bertiebassett sent me a message again that he was resting on the steps across the park from me. Hustled on over and met him. We sat around and talked for a few. The weather turned even worse with dark skies and more thunder. Thankfully, he offered me a ride back to the hotel with his bus group. (Very gracious, thanks!) On the way back out, we stopped to do one of those Universal Studios customer surveys. During the survey, the skies OPENED UP! I’m talking POURING RAIN in sheets, waves and buckets. We get back to the bus soaking wet and head back to the hotel. At this point, I realized that I paid $59 for the Universal Ticket, $35 for the taxi ride to Universal, $20 for a t-shirt, $10 for lunch, no freakin’ rides, and got soaking wet; all in the timeframe of 2 hours. Yay me.

So back to the hotel, up to the room and change to something a bit drier. Sending messages back and forth with Stu, x14, Di, and Jules. Meet up with Stu after his plane lands and he unpacks. Have dinner at Champions in the hotel. Stu buys first round (as he should). We agree to meet the next day for Disney fun.

Monday 5/7/07
Meet downstairs at the concierge desk and get tickets for Disney. Head off to Magic Kingdom. Ride a few rides like Space Mountain and such, force Stu to ride the Small World ride. (He says the ride wasn’t so bad, it was my singing the Small World song over and over while ON the ride!) Leave MK and go over to MGM for movie themed fun. Star Tours, Tower of Terror and others complete the day of fun for us. Head back to the hotel were we try to look respectable for the WES reception. As arranged previously, most folks met us in the back corner which became our rally point. Lots of folks showed up to say hi and have some drinks/snacks. We even picked up a few new friends while standing around. Bbpvpn and wickie. They are the senior execs for WICKSoft, an excellent company that produces PocketVPN. They didn’t have a booth at WES, they WERE the booth at WES. (My company is evaluating their product, PocketVPN for use in our environment. It looks very promising. Ya’ll should check them out too!)

MEET n GREET Pic
Left to Right: x14, mrc7928, stuwhite, DarthBBerry, chubby_nubby, ladydi, NastyPenguin

So the meet ‘n’ greet ends and we’re still having a good time together. Some of us head over to Champions for more drinks and food. Me, AlanM, x14, NastyPenguin, LadyDi, (yeah guys, she IS that hot; lucky Penguin) Stuwhite, & mahoward. Juwaack68 shows up a bit later due to her late flight and incompetent car rental agency. Jibi makes an appearance as we call it a night. He blames the car rental agency too. (Remind me not to use Avis.)

Tuesday 5/8/07
First full day of WES. Attended sessions, learned some new admin functions and then meet everybody for lunch at our rallying point in the showcase solution and discuss if we want to go straight to Hard Rock or crash the T-Mobile event. At the last minute, we jump on a bus to T-Mobile. Strangely enough, they don’t have a name tag with my name on it. “Hmm, I don’t know why I’m not on the list. I’m a prospective customer.” And in I go to the party at CityJazz. ** snore ** Yeah, it was that lame. Sure we got free food and open bar, but it was a snoozer. We dash out of there and head to the Hard Rock early to get a good table. We were glad we did. We got 2 tables upstairs, outside, out of direct sunset, near the bar, near the bathroom, near the food and next to the cigar rolling dude. Life was good. We sat around having a great time. Mrc7928 was more entertaining than the concert next door (we skipped out and watched it on the monitors). We all had a great time, “Bartender! Shots for everybody!” “No No NO! We’re going THIS way. Put one foot in front of the other…” Unfortunately, we didn’t catch the bus directly to Hard Rock, so we had to wing it back to the hotel. We got a van-taxi back with some other folks going back to the Marriott. I thought it was rather cool that the radio was playing one station while I heard Metallica piped in sitting in the back. BBPVPN heard it too. Ladydi and NastyPenguin took mrc7928 back to their hotel and escorted him back to his room. Yeah, he was hurting the next day. Me, bbpvpn, x14 and stu went to the bar along with the folks we shared the taxi with. Kept hearing Metallica piped in at the bar area too. Another drink, trip to the restroom and I heard Metallica in there too! WOW, this is awesome. Metallica everywhere I go. Back to the bar and commented that they were playing Metallica in the restroom. bbpvpn looks at me and says, “Dude, your pants are playing Metallica. The hotel isn’t playing it, you are!” Sure enough, my phone/MP3 player had automatically started and was playing tunes. I’ve got Metallica Pants! Finally got back to the room and sleep.

Wednesday 5/9/07
Up early for BES 4.0 to 4.1 training class. Now the Marriott gives everybody a copy of USA Today at their door each morning. This morning, ALL the copies were still at the door on my floor and the crowd downstairs was pretty thin. It seemed as though there were a lot of casualties from Hard Rock the night before. Head downstairs to my class, meet up with juwaack68 and there are no computers in the room. OMG WTF?! How can you have hands-on class with nothing to put your hands-on? The instructor shows up late saying, “Sorry I got asked to do this class last minute.” (I figure the original instructor was one of the ones who didn’t get their copy of USA Today yet; aka: Hard Rock Casualty) After making a strong case about the true meaning of “hands-on” the WES folks agree to refund my money and give me a paper copy of the 4 hours of slides they intended to show. I see mrc7928 who is looking really rough from the night before. I catch up with AlanM and mahoward in another class. Lunch, more classes, solutions showcase, etc etc. We all agreed to go to the Verizon party in the hotel that night. We meet downstairs in the bar (shocking) and wait until they are ready downstairs for the rush of people. Kevin Crackberry proclaims the Pear-tini as the “official drink of Crackberry.com” Head down to Verizon party and enjoy free food and open bar. Meet James Bond, get a pic with the Bond girls. Strangely enough mrc7928 doesn’t show up at all. We wondered where he was all night… BBF.com members win a ton of loot at the Verizon raffle. Partial list:
Blackberry 8703e x4
iPod Nano x2
Extreme Backpack monogrammed with Blackberry logo x2
Odyssey putter
Hand stitched golf bag
$1000 in cash
Now we’re not really mentioning names of who won what item. So let’s not ask, mkay?
Bbpvpn and wickie take their leave as they have an early flight. Good guys, I hated to see them leave early but we'll keep in touch via Blackberry Messenger.

Verizon kicks us out when the party ends and we go to Champions for more indulgence of food and drink. I see jibi across the way eating a burger. (Was that a pink or stink burger? LOL … guess you had to be there). Found out that the TMobile party for that night really sucked again. Ha-ha, that’s what you get for not having me on your guest list. I call it a night and head back to the room to crash.

Thursday 5/10/07
Downstairs for morning sessions and classes. Again, lots of USA Today at the doorsteps and thin on participation downstairs. Attend sessions with jibi, x14 and ladydi. At lunch some of us agree to meet at Epcot later on for our own evening entertainment. (faces blocked by request in the lunch pic; Left-right: Barry, mrc7928, AlanM, x14, DarthBBerry, ladydi, mahoward, stuwhite, NastyPenguin, juwaack68) Goodbyes to mrc7928 and AlanM as they were departing later in the day. Rides on Mission Space, Test Track and Soarin’ with mahoward, Penguin, and Kevin Crackberry. Stu and x14 showed up a short time later. Mahoward had to split, so we said our goodbyes to him and continued. Tortured Stu at the UK pavilion with the horrible accents of Canadians trying to sound British. Also trying to find a place to eat with for all of us was a task too. Watched the fireworks together in Canada amongst the bears and totem poles. Di and Penguin dropped me, x14, Stu and Kevin Crackberry back at our hotel where we proceeded….. to go to the bar. Drinks and laughs ensued and Crackberry had to get some sleep for an early flight. And then there were 3. One more round for me, Stu and x14. X14 was leaving the next morning, so we said our goodbyes and called it a night.

Friday 5/11/07
A full day in Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure for me and Stu. He lost his hat on the Jurassic Park ride. Luckily the camera got a pic of it as we went over the falls. Preserved for all posterity.

Saturday 5/12/07
A full day between Epcot, Animal Kingdom (Expedition Everest was GREAT! Thanks Alan! You are ALWAYS right. Never forget it.) and Magic Kingdom. We stay for the fireworks over the castle and call it a night. Back to the hotel. And as the week started with me and Stu it ended with the 2 of us. We said our goodbyes and crashed.

PROPS
RIM for having the event
Verizon for a kick-a$$ party
BBF.com for a way for all of us to meet
Crackberry.com for the shirt
WICKSoft.com for the greatest sales booth & sales team at WES

SLOPS
Marriott for messing with my credit card
Marriott for somebody breaking into my room and raiding my mini-fridge (long story)
WES for not providing computers in a hands-on class
TMobile for excluding me from their guest lists
Sprint for not inviting me (a CUSTOMER) to their party

I can honesty say that I learned a lot from the sessions provided by WES 2007. I also made a lot of new friends. These folks made my time at WES more enjoyable due to their personality, friendship, and acceptance. I want to thank them all for coming together for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yes, WES will happen again. But the experiences we all shared THIS time were especially meaningful because they were the FIRST time we were all together. I consider this group my friends and I hope they feel the same. In alphabetical order so there is no favoritism: (not posting real names, but we all know who is who)
AlanM
BBPVPN
jibi
Kevin Crackberry
ladydi
mahoward
mrc7928
NastyPenguin
stuwhite
Wickie
x14

Cheers all. One more round of O’Douls in your honor. Thanks for being such a great group of people.

[chubby_nubby]

Holy post man . .I hope next year I will have more time to hang out with you guys, and not have meetings with vendors all afternoon and night, which did not get me a 8300, or 8830. Nice meeting everyone though.

chubbs

[Kevin Michaluk]

Great Post DarthBBerry!

So I guess I'm registered @ BBF with my REAL name. Maybe one of the mods can change my username up to CrackBerryKevin...as based on WES 2007 that is a lot more fitting.

I can't believe you put up that Pear-Tini pic..haha..it's horrible! Oh well... I'll get you back.

Working on some WES posts now too...will get you guys the link when they're up!

Was soo good meeting everyone. I have some sweet pics of the Verizon Prizes you all hauled in too.

[bbpvpn]

Great post Darth!! Thanks for all the kind words. The pics turned out great!

I want a pair of those "Metallica Pants"! That was so funny!! I remember in the van trying to figure out where those metallica songs were coming from. LOL

[jibi]

Just thought I'd mention that the Maui Jim sunglasses they gave out at the Tuesday night T-Mobile event, provided they are authentic, are minimum $150-250 retail price. The two pairs I ended up with were on either side of that spectrum.

[chubby_nubby]

I just got an e mail from Cerience Corporation saying I won a Wii, from dropping a business card into a box at their booth . .chalk up another prize for us

chubbs

[juwaack68]

<----- I'm not listed in Darth's 'friends' list... hmmmm....

[chubby_nubby]

I'm in the meet and greet pic

[chubby_nubby]

Originally Posted by juwaack68

<----- I'm not listed in Darth's 'friends' list... hmmmm....

I read that wrong . .I'm an idiot . .lol

[juwaack68]

[nighttrain76]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Great post!!! It was my first time and WES too and I'm begging right now for them to sign me up for next year. I feel your pain about the "hands on lab" upgrade to 4.1. I was the hungover black guy in the back I'm just now feeling like my self again.

[bertiebassett]

Hey Darth

Thanks for the mention, good to meet you and all the others (albeit briefly) ..now where did I put that time slowing button on my 'berry..

As as WES newbie, I was travelling as a guest of my carrier and RIM with pretty much all the direct costs covered (room, food, flights etc) - and therefore I was keen to make sure I was in attendance with those guys when they had things on...however this cut down my time to hangout with the forumities..as our carrier had things on Sunday eve, Monday eve, tuesday (pre hard-rock) and Wed..

plus following the soaking of my 8700 I managed to blag an 8300 out of my carrier rep and that really is a sweet device..so I can't complain at all!!

No doubt I'll hear from Stu when he comes back about the travails of his golf bag..

best wishes from this side of the pond...

bb

[SimonMac]

Originally Posted by bertiebassett

Hey Darth

Thanks for the mention, good to meet you and all the others (albeit briefly) ..now where did I put that time slowing button on my 'berry..

As as WES newbie, I was travelling as a guest of my carrier and RIM with pretty much all the direct costs covered (room, food, flights etc) - and therefore I was keen to make sure I was in attendance with those guys when they had things on...however this cut down my time to hangout with the forumities..as our carrier had things on Sunday eve, Monday eve, tuesday (pre hard-rock) and Wed..

plus following the soaking of my 8700 I managed to blag an 8300 out of my carrier rep and that really is a sweet device..so I can't complain at all!!

No doubt I'll hear from Stu when he comes back about the travails of his golf bag..

best wishes from this side of the pond...

bb

Still can't belive you managed to blag the 8300! Was good meeting up with you and props for being the only "outsider" to move over from the Dark Side and party with the big boys!

[DarthBBerry]

Originally Posted by bertiebassett

plus following the soaking of my 8700 I managed to blag an 8300 out of my carrier rep and that really is a sweet device..so I can't complain at all!!

The best part was where you were shaking the water out of your 8700.
And if anybody else is wondering, THIS is why his 8700 got soaked; after it lightened up a bit.

[DarthBBerry]

Kevin Crackberry has his own report from WES 2007. Check it out at Crackberry.com!

[bertiebassett]

anyone tried d/loading the presentations using the disk in the bag...says "open on the 17th", but it's now the 17th and there not open. I want to check out the sessions that I missed!!

[DarthBBerry]

Originally Posted by bertiebassett

anyone tried d/loading the presentations using the disk in the bag...says "open on the 17th", but it's now the 17th and there not open. I want to check out the sessions that I missed!!

Ya, noticed that too. Guess the 17th ain't over yet.
Maybe by tomorrow?

[jibi]

They pushed it to Monday. WTF?!

[DarthBBerry]

Originally Posted by jibi

They pushed it to Monday. WTF?!

Maybe the presentation designers are still recovering from the Hard Rock bash....

[bertiebassett]

Originally Posted by SimonMac

Still can't belive you managed to blag the 8300! Was good meeting up with you and props for being the only "outsider" to move over from the Dark Side and party with the big boys!

well it's always good to 'get down' with the local 'hood.. not sure I could keep up with the standing on your head/general spinny moves that the locals were pulling off...

Originally Posted by DarthBBerry

Maybe the presentation designers are still recovering from the Hard Rock bash....

hey I obviously didn't play hard enough as I managed to get over my jet lag by the saturday.. next time more late nights!