Yeah and that was the year RIM paid most of my bills. ah good times

Yihaa, I'll be there again this year after skipping 2007 and 2008. Bigger, better,...?

Peter

I'm there too.. first experience

Jay

For all you first timers, don't haul your laptop around with you, carry your sunglasses everywhere you go, and keep your BlackBerry fully charged.

Don't need no stinkin' laptop.....

Same here BB, left the WY Police when they were being forced to go down the WinMo route (have since backtracked and stayed with Berrys as they saw the light), if anyone gets the chance to go to WES I would recommend it as it a blast (big up to the 2007 Crew) as it is well worth the investment!

'sup Si, long time no post . Just got to say mate, lovin the sig, nice!

I'm going on WES too. This is my first visit on such this conference. Maybe I took my wife with me. I live she in hotel and let spend a time how she would like.

I will go when its held in new york

From some of the post here it sounds like there's more to the event than what goes on during the day.

I'm heading out there from the UK for my first WES and wondered if anyone can give me some tips about what goes on 'after hours' and how to get the most from it.

What's all the talk about Blue Man Group, Kiss etc?

Thanks

Mate you will have a ball, trust me! It's the same as similar confs in that all day you sit around and get told how to do stuff you already know in a better way or how to do some stuff you didn't know about. Then at night you go out and go a bit mad but the diff with this place is that you have the theme parks 15 mins away, very cool . There is generally at least one organised event by a vendor etc but even when there isn't, there is always something going on to keep you busy! doesn't look like I will be going but I am sure one of these lucky buggers will hook up with you.

Also speak to your major network and see what they have got going on (unless you are with Voda, they are a bit clueless about WES). So jealous mate.

There was talk about some of us getting together to go see Blue Man Group on the Sunday before WES or the Friday afterwards. Not happening now.

There was a rumor that KISS was to be the WES Party entertainment. Nothing else confirmed though.

There are 3 major theme parks within minutes of the conference.
Walt Disney World
Universal Studios
SeaWorld

Take your pick and have some fun!

I am officially NOT going....

We had one of our very best server admins put his 2 weeks in on Monday and that means we have to pick up the slack. Which means I will be doing Citrix training instead. I suppose this is a good thing since it means more opportunities, but I was looking forward to seeing you guys again.

But hey, at least I will be in Orlando tomorrow for my honeymoon .

I'll be there with 2 people from my company. Should be a blast as always.

Also, I feel like I should be fighting with stuwhite. Or at least our avatars should be.

haha I saw your avatar and smiled but tbh it wouldn't be a fight. The puny son of Jor-el is nothing against the might of General Zod, sorry dude .

I wont' be going this year. I *may* have been able to swing it if the Canadian dollar was still at par, but sine it's 20% lower now, and the economy has tanked, it's a no go.

Which is really too bad, looking at 5.0 would have been nice.

Oh well, will aim for 2010

Sorry, but I am going to have to disagree there.



Plus, come on, Zod is the bad guy. The bad guy never beats Superman.

Oh please. Your puny attempts at Google image searching just remind me how easy it will be for Zod to rule this infantile race.

But yeah, it's a shame Zod has to lose, far stronger character than Superman. But we digress......

Well, John Mayer's summer tour was sponsored by RIM last summer and he was the entertainment at WES. This summer they are sponsoring U2...

I like starting rumors.

This is a great rumor. I'll second it.

U2 to be the RIM Party entertainment.

I'll be there again. Looking forward to it.

To all of you expecting the lavish parties like prior years, you may be in for a surprise this year...hope I'm wrong, but we'll see. *fingers crossed*

Maybe this year we won't have to pretend to be interested.

Malcolm Gladwell will be there to tell you how to use the Blackberry as a hair iron.

The Cirque group that performed the night of the RIM party was great. Actually decided that night I was taking my wife to the Cirque show for her birthday when we were in Orlando in December.

My allergy induced head cold was in full force that night and I really couldn't hear John Mayer anyway.

5th year in a row for me, hopefully there will be a release date for 5.0 given.

And hopefully a roadmap of where they will be going with the MVS product. We just put it in and are currently testing it.


Carl

Who said Mondays suck?

Came in to a voicemail from the CIO saying it's vital that I attend so .. my airfare is booked and will be getting the other things finalized today

Doing my happy dance!

Lucky bugger! I am assuming now that the earlier talk here was smoke being blown, so I guess I will have to attend virtually (i.e. Darth IMing me each day with what I missed)

I was planning to go but I just got notified "due to budget constraints" I'm not going.

Maybe next year...

Well if I had your new PIN.......

If I could get the friggin thing to activate mate .......

Call your BES Admin... oh wait....

And the first person who posts a link to the "how to troubleshoot activation" doc (I am looking at you knotty) is getting a personal visit. To make it worse my friggin backup server for Europe just went bye byes and it's past food time

Good evening all, This will be my first WES trip and I really dont know what to expect. My role is more support than administrative, can anyone give me any insight as to what I should go to. I am signed up to take the Blackberry Certification test (the suppot one I think). Any insight to all of this would be much appreciated. Hope this turns out to be fun, of course we will be in Florida with beer, cant get much better than that I guess.

Hi and welcome to the Forums.

You can expect to see 3000+ BlackBerry friends from all over the world walking around a convention floor all staring at their devices for 4 days straight.

Seriously though, you only get out of it what you put into it. If you make the effort to attend the sessions that really impact your job, you will take back with you valuable info that can help with maintenance, repair, and support for your users. I recommend you look at the sessions listed for the Mobile Architecture and Admin track and make your selections from there. Be sure to register for them in advance to guarantee yourself a seat; especially in the BES 5.0 sessions. Those will probably fill up in a hurry!

Just off the top of my head if I was a support role type (handheld deployment/user support)

I'd attend these sessions:

WA26 Putting Your End Users In-the-Know
WA39 Keep it Simple: Wirelessly Upgrade Your BlackBerry Smartphones
WA41 BlackBerry Handheld Tips and Tricks
WT01 What's Hot? What's Coming In Mobility?
WA03 Customer Panel Session – An Inside Look at BES 5.0
WA09 Blackberry Resource Kit: Leveraging the Power of Your Support Team with a Self Service Portal

The best aspect is meeting with peers and networking.

We'll be setting up some meet & greets as it gets closer. Hopefully Boxtone will have a nice lounge again.

Went the last 2 years but won't be able to go this year. No funding for conferences allowed! Oh well, looks like I will be reading BGR instead from work.

Just got the word from my boss that I am to go to WES and get everything booked ASAP.

w00t!

After many tries I finally got a room at the Marriot. Woo hoo!!!!

I just realized i can book a 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom house with a private screened in pool/jacuzzi, game room, and lake view within a few miles of Disney and the Marriott for like $125 a night. Why am I booked at $217 a night at the Marriott? I may give my room up since the wife, daughter and two other family members are coming...