Which is good, because you can have couple of Corona's before

There should be a link there called Auto Scheduler. It will also assist you in resolving conflicts with sessions you picked that overlap.

Getting close! Still no love for the Host hotel.

I was wondering if all those attending can list their hotel, PIN, Cell so we can coordinate. I'd be happy to put this all into excel for everyones reference.

PM me if interested.

Anyone get the invite for the Hootie/Blowfish event for AT&T?

A big fan of the Blowfish... not so much Hootie. But hey, music is music, right?

Nope. Not an AT&T customer. But then again, I was a Sprint/Nextel customer last year and they refused to invite me.

Plus we aren't as famous as Jibi. He has all of the ins.

I got the invite for the AT&T party (supposed to get 2 passes). If my husband doesn't make it (and I do get both passes) I'll offer the other one up.

oh! oh! Pick me! Pick me!
I would be a fun date.

Not an AT&T customer either.
Any ideas on how to get tickets?

We crashed the TMob party last year. Result: cold food, watery drinks, crowded bar, bad music.
Got rejected from the Sprint/Nextel party. Seems as though our reputation preceded us.
Attended the Verizon party and had a blast. Good food (lots of it); huge bar in the middle of the room; bundles of gadgets that they gave away.

Already inquired with my Sprint/Nextel rep about the WES activities. She was like, "ummm, yeah....well, Sprint will be there as a major sponsor. But I can't tell anything else even though you're a customer."

I know where I'm going this year. Who's with me?! SPARTACUS!!!

I'm in, Darth. Haven't heard what Verizon is doing this year. I'll see if I can shake anything loose and find out. We've left Nextel and TMob by the hundreds over the last year, I may not be high on their list (hey, you gotta go with who gives you coverage, right?).

We also ported hundreds of numbers from Sprint/Nextel in the past year as well. When they asked me why, I told them in very polite terms:
Customer Service: you suck
T-Support: you suck
Quality of hardware: you suck
Quality of service/reception: you suck
Sales responsiveness: you suck
Billing representation: you suck

I think ya'll get the idea.
I've been hitting up my Verizon rep for details too. He's working on it, but says he can't release the details... yet. Maybe next week.

Just got my email invite for the Verizon gig. Do you wanna know what's going on??????

Asian inspired.

Send it. BBM incoming with e-mail addy.

My VZW rep put our names on a list or something, but I haven't heard anything back. Still awaiting TMO (he previously contacted me asking if I would be attending), so if anyone hears anything, please post (that way I can know to badger my rep).

Hey Guys,

As you can see I am new to the forum. I recently became a BES Admin just a few months ago. I am still very new. But I was able to successfully migrate our BES 2.2 server to a virtual 4.1.4 (and then the sp5 update) with the help of RIM's support.

Anyways, I will be attending WES2008. Hope to see you all there!

I assume I need to purchase a guest pass if I want a guest to tag along to these parties?

Usually no purchase necessary at all. These are customer appreciation parties.

This will be my first WES and I was looking for word from any vetrans on laptops--do a lot of people bring them along each day or is it just another thing to lug around for the day (I'm staying at a non-WES hotel so I guess I can throw it in the rental car for the day)? do they have open wifi access in the conference center?

Any other tips? I will be the only person from my company there so I may have to look for some folks from here to hang out with (even though I am not as active as I should be here).

I brought mine last year and it stayed in the hotel room the entire time. I didn't want to lug it around. I'm even considering not bringing it this year.

Free Wi-Fi was provided by Meru Networks. Unfortunately, it didnt reach all the way up to my room. Only seemed to work in the conference area.
I didn't see too many folks with laptops.

Yeah, I will be brining my laptop, but don't expect it to leave the hotel room. It will be for me at the end of the day to get on the VPN and do some of my daily things I still have to do(some server monitoring + reports, etc.). I'll also update my outlook and reply to any work e-mails that will be too long to type on the BB.

So have we finalized where the BBF rally point is?

I saw several people using their laptops in the morning around breakfast time. I kept mine in my room and just check in with email once I got back to the room in the afternoon or evening.

As Darth said WiFi is free downstairs in the WES area. As I recall the WiFi access for the room was pricey. Last year I tethered to my BB, this year my laptop has the Verizon broadband card (woohoo).

I am beyond stoked. I finally got a room at the Orlando World Center Marriott & Convention Center!!!! For those still trying the attendwes.com site says it's sold out but click through and they have rooms at the WES rate open.

Glad I won't be shuttling around .. now I can just stumble

Back on current topic .. job requires I have my laptop in case something comes up but I'm not lugging it around all day .. I'll keep it in the room and use it at night if needed (which I'm hoping is NOT)

I can stop clicking on the attendwes.com site like a madman now.

Woohoo! Persistence pays off.

Is anyone else staying at Courtyard Orlando Lake Buena Vista in Marriott Village?

I am staying at the Fairfield. Anyone else. Very excited too. Am a newbie and took me three years to talk the boss into it. I am going with one of the other peeps who has been there about four times.

Parties:
TMO is having one, site unknown but it is on Tuesday night so you would miss part of the WES party. They did this last year as well.
Verizon is having an Asian inspired event at the Marriot. I heard it was supposed to be like nothing ever before at WES. They are really building it up.
AT&T Hootie and Blowfish.
Sprint. no word yet.
Other vendors will customer appreciation events as well, if you are a customer.

So here's a question, we are currently customers of Verizon, CIngular an ROgers Wireless... How does one get an invite to these customer appreciation parties?

Same question here.. I deployed 800 Verizon 8703s and 8830s in 07.. Wheres my invite...

Regardless this is my second year going to WES and I can't wait. I'm somewhat new to BBF and was just catching up on this thread. Seems like a great group or people here not to mention heaps of Blackberry knowledge. Sorry to say this, but I think I'm staying...

Ask your Verizon Rep.

Stay tuned to this thread today - got a leak for the forums meeting / gathering place and some other fun news

Got my invite for RIM's BlackBerry Customer Appreciation Night at the High Velocity Sports Baron Wednesday night. Hopefully I'll see some of you there.

My Verizon rep wasn't even aware of WES.....

Time for a new rep. Move up the food chain to a regional player.

Last year Verizon had several people that handed out passes to the Verizon event. You didn't need a preinvite. I expect it to be the same again this year.

jlentendre,

See ya at the sports bar!

And then there was a person who made sure ALL his friends had the invitation to the Verizon event. And they were happy he did!

Well my rep sent me a link to register. Here it is if anyone wants it:

Verizon - Eastern Connections

Title kind of says it all--I'm staying at non-WES hotel (Embassy Suites about 3.5 miles away) and going to be driving a rental up to the conference daily. Anyone else have to do this and is parking going to be a pain, like I need to plan to get there earlier then usual each day or anything?