Howdy folks. Already here at WES 2009, registered and got my swag bag.

And there's a sign showing WES 2010 for April 27-29, 2010 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. Make your reservations now!

More to come if/when I have time. Others attending are welcome to post their adventures in this thread.

I'm here now too... Over at the Hilton though. I try to rack up as many hilton points a year as I can...

What's to do down here on a Sunday night?

Hit 2 of the Disney parks with AlanM on Sunday afternoon/evening. Seems as though the Disney people working the lines at the rides got stupid or something. Each line took a lot longer than it used to even in the Single Rider Line. *shrug*

Ran into Jibi, hdawg and the BoxTone crew in High Velocity Sunday night. Was good to see them all again. Good bunch of folks. If you have money, you should buy their product. Sure wish I had money... I'd buy BoxTone.

jibi has crêpes.
hdawg has BALLS. And he's not afraid to share.
That's all I'm gonna say about that.

jletendre sends me a BBM message at 7:05am est this morning with his travel update and wakes me up. "Sleeping. Go away. LOL"
I'll catch up with him when he gets here.

More to come....

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I just arrivved,meet up with you guys at some point

Keep us homebound unfortunates posted guys! Have fun!

What's in the swag bag?

Swag bag was pretty nice. Targus style backpack with a laptop case insert. It has the normal carboard ads from the Showcase vendors, 2 pens, Verizon/Vodaphone water bottle and a copy of Malcom Gladwell's book, Outliers.

Since I was one of the first 10 or so people to get the swag bag, the showcase folks were a bit confused about what was to be given out. I ended up with the way-cool BlackBerry Alliance Notebook which came with a 1GB thumbdrive. Gonna try to score one of the best swag items I've seen so far: The Life-Size BlackBerry Bean Bag chairs! Yes, there are beanbag chairs all around the conference area with the BB logo on them. That would be a MAJOR score!

More later...

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Finished checking in to hotel,heading to WES to check it out.

Oh man, I am so jealous!

Just got my swag bag and book too.

Knottyrope is at WES!

DITTO!!!

Keep us posted!!!

arrived yesterday, caught some drinks and the end of the canes/boston game and high velocity. golfed with verizon this morning and had lunch in the club house. going to fool around now for a bit till the party tonight.

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WOW, what a time we had, met up with boxtone lounge and was able to meet many people. The 2 hour event with all the vendors was crazy full. The food and drinks were a welcome treat. Can knot wait for more action today, breakfast with RIM today will be nice.

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Once again att has dropped the ball. They're coverage is more spotty that a dalmation. Its absurd.

Agreed--the ATT data coverage is horrible. EDGE drops to edge quicker than crap. I'm told ALL of the RIM staff is on ATT here, 500+ of them in one building can suck the steam out of bandwidth on one tower.

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I am heading home, can't wait to catch up on sleep.

Very jealous here. Will have to start working on convincing my company for next year's one...

Trust me it was a BLAST!!!
I met so many people that are on these forums I might knot remember them all.
You will see pics of the fun I had soon.

What a fantastic event WES2009 was!

It was my first and I truly hope not my last.

Was a great event.

Finally back, lost luggage and all. Good to be home.
HIGHLIGHTS: the view from my room (see attached pic), meeting Mike Lazaridis (see attached pic), sending Audit a picture of the swag bag, running into my Domino Admin at Disney Hollywood Studios (he was there on vacation with his family; what are the freakin' odds?!) and a few other things that I prolly should discuss.
LOWLIGHTS: Broken zipper on swag bag, lost luggage, meals that didn't cater to the diverse crowed.

Overall, a good educational WES.

People seen at WES 2009:
AlanM
pinjo
jletendre
knottyrope
canadiancrack
jibi
hdawg
jsanders
jules
and many many more.....

Hey Darth, glad you made it home - was good to see you. I can't believe you got a pic with Lazaridis - he completely blew me off when I asked for a pic with him. Said if he took a picture with me then everyone would want one. Pffffffttt!!

How was Universal and the House of Mouse?

And I was the one standing with Jules when she asked... I think he was actually slighting ME as the "everyone".

Anyway, He has too much hair, looks a like a baptist preacher from Alabama.

You do have that 'stalker' look, Joey. Maybe he had a point

I think the hair is actually a small animal. Looked a little like roadkill from Michigan's Upper Penninsula in January.

Looks like you had a good time, and a very nice view

He only had one of his entourage around him at the time and was heading from the conference floor past the escalators thru where the Admin Training was being held. Knowing I may never get another chance, I called him by name and he turned around. I thanked him for the developments in BlackBerry and for such a wonderful means of communication. (Yeah, suck up.) He read my badge and asked about where I was from, number of users, e-mail platform and how we use BBs. He was very nice, patient and personal. THEN I asked if I could have a picture. I got his handler to take it too!

And to make it better, I ran into him again on my way back from Universal Friday night. I was wearing the 10th anniversary of WES T-shirt. Mr. Lazaridis saw it and turned to somebody else in his party and asked, "How come we didn't get t-shirts?" They shrugged. I recommended, "Maybe you can call somebody at RIM. I'm sure they can hook you up." He laughed and replied, "That's pretty funny!" Very cool guy!

hahaha, great Story Darth, funny.

You think he ever get's pre-release devices to play with, if he can't get a Tshirt?

Funny story, Darth. I didn't figure he'd still be at the hotel on Friday (figured he'd leave after the main conference wrap up).

Well my luggage turned up in Orlando the day before I did. After cancelling my connection from DC to Orlando they threw me on a plane to Chicago to catch the later flight to MCO.

After 45 minutes stuck on the tarmac we were unloaded because of engine failure. Two hours later we were loaded onto another plane (after a tortuous re-issue of boarding passes). After another half an hour or so the dreaded 'is there a doctor on board?' call went out for some poor guy having some 'trouble'. About 90 minutes later he was carted off by the paramedics leaving us free to get to Chicago. I missed the last connection from there to MCO so I was doomed to spend a night at a hotel in Chicago.

The morning brought a little bit of cheer as I managed to get on the standby list for the first flight to Orlando. It's nerve wracking as you watch the number of people checked in go up and up and the number of available seats going down and down.

Finally, finally I get to Orlando around midday on Monday, find my luggage sitting there since god knows when and pick up the rental car.

I managed to make the last few hours of the first days BES5 training course and then continued to have one of the best weeks ever!

As for United I hope I don't ever have the misfortune to fly with them again but I will do all I can to get back to WES2010.

After you left, I did some shopping, rode Bluto Bilge Rats and got soaked. Worse than Kali River Rapids. Walked around a bit more to dry out and went to the NASCAR cafe for an early dinner. Then caught the late afternoon showing of Star Trek. Cab ride back to the hotel and bumped into The Laz. Down to High Velocity for another dinner and watched hockey. And no... Shawnessey was NOT there that evening, dammmit! I was hoping she was.

Hi Darth

I did the Bilge Rats too and ended up with a soaked 'Bold'. It took some drying out before it worked again...

Oops

Ha ha.. as AlanM can verify, I carry a Zip-Lock bag in my backpack just for rides such as that. (Kali Rapids) In went my personal cell, the BB, watch, and wallet. Wrapped the bag in a nice hotel towel and then put it all in the backpack. Mr. Backpack then went into the water-preventing center section.

Guess you learned the hard way!