Reed G Porter Online

On Monday, April 19, 2010 Microsoft Management Summit 2010 at the Sands Expo In Las Vegas, NV officially begins! With the beginning of the conference people are connecting with friends both old and new, jockeying for position in a variety of lines, and begging each vendor for inclusion at their party.  It’s a whirlwind day; the first of many and if you’re looking for Wally, he’s probably in the Labs area.

This opening day I held the Social Networking for Codgers breakfast at Harrahs Flavors Buffet. There were six of us for breakfast and I decided I would need to hold a more in-depth training for technical people to really do this topic justice. High profile people from all walks need to be able to connect and have conversations with their constituents via tools like Facebook and Twitter.  Look for a webinar on this very topic by me in the near future.

Next we went over for registration. Here is where you get your badge and backpack full of goodies. I was able to bypass the rather long line and go right to vendor registration.  On the way out I took the first video of the line and followed by the unboxing of the swag bag.  Be sure to comment below if you see yourself in either video!

From there, I connected with a few friends and made some plans. Then we went to one of the Freshman Orientation sessions and met up with some new friends from the Kansas City area.  Hopefully, we can get the Kansas City Area Systems Management Users Group going again.  Look for a meeting in June at the earliest.

The opening day Vendor Expo is essentially a party with brochures and swag. What’s really cool about the #MMS2010 opening party is the mad dash to get a MyITForum party button. Much like Charlie’s Golden Ticket, the MyITForum party button gets you into the party.

The second video chronicles a couple of guys waiting over 2 hours to be first in line for their button, many of the folks receiving their buttons, a celebrity ex-hockey player, and a couple prizes won.

What it does not show is the mad rush itself. I had the camera on pause and missed the entire thing. The camera and my video taping experience were barely two weeks old at the time. (Which explains why so many attendees appear to be missing their heads!)

If you want to see the mad rush, you’ll just have to join us for MMS 2011 at Mandalay Bay.  Until then imagine, if you will, you are standing in a dry river bed somewhere out west. You’re expectant, but not too worried when you hear a voice in the sky intone, “The 2001 Microsoft Management Summit Expo is now open.” This is followed by a rumbling in the distance growing quickly louder.  You look toward the sound and you see a herd of desert creatures bounding toward you as they attempt to escape a flood of amber liquid rushing after them. You are thinking you should move, but you look around and do not see any reachable safe havens. Just as you think it is about time to let your bowels go and give up the ghost, the charging herd stops as quick as it started.  Then the wave of amber liquid engulfs you and you admonish folks to try to keep their beer in the cup rather than all over everybody else. 

Think I am exaggerating? Test me, sign up for #MMS2011.  I hope I see you there! Come back tomorrow for more from last week’s summit.