We had a work trip to Milwaukee this past week. Its one of the main reasons why I have been a little quiet on here.
Had to prepare the bosses demo hardware for his trip to Europe and get my demo software (the groov graphics of my house) ready for my trip.
Once that was done and the boss was on his way, I then had to put together my presentation that I was giving at the trade show we were attending in Milwaukee.
Trip over went very smooth, flew out of Ontario airport, just an hours drive north of home.
Flew to Las Vegas to change planes, then flew to Milwaukee. Probably about 6-7 hours of travel all up.
For some reason the Hyatt hotel had closed their dining room, so finding food was a bit of a challenge for the duration of the entire stay.
The trade show was the first IoT show for this organizer, so it was a little small, but we were the only ones there with a graphic / web based product, so had lots of really good conversations and interest in using groov in future projects.
The house graphics really paid off big time as they got a lot of attention (I will be sharing it with you guys pretty soon).
Come time for my presentation and I could not run the dual monitor setup I had practiced with, so had to do it with no notes, so was really glad that I had practiced!
The way I practiced was a little different from the way I normally do it…. Our new video guy, Paul, got me in Opto’s conference room, we got a few people in there, and he got me to present it to them while he videoed it.
So, for your viewing pleasure. Here it is.
Yeah, its a bit long, but I was requested to give a half hour presentation, and at 27 minutes, its close enough.
Long story short, I spoke about how IoT is hard to understand from a distance, but when you live with it, it becomes personal.
Since its personal, you will need to visualize it the way you want.
The web browser is the perfect tool to use for viewing it, since you have one on every device you own that access the Internet.
The guy that MC’ed this part of the show told me that I gave the best presentation of the show, and one of the best presentations he has heard for years.
We packed up the show booth and headed off to the airport around 4pm, plenty of time for my 6pm flight.
While sitting in the waiting area, I get an email from SouthWest (the airline) saying the flight is delayed to 7pm.
Blah, but no big deal.
Cue up some trance and settle back.
About 20 minutes later we get another email, flight is delayed till 8pm.
Ok, now I am annoyed, this means I am going to miss my connection out of Phoenix.
As I am packing up my gear, an announcement comes over the speakers that the flight is delayed even more and if we are going to have issues with our connections, please come to the counter.
I am about the 6th or 7th person in line.
By the time I get there, the lady tells me I have two choices, stay the night in a motel (at their expense) or fly to Phoenix and stay a few hours in a motel there and then fly out first thing in the morning.
Since I have a 10am meeting with a customer that is heavily booked, I take the latter option. (Keep this choice in mind).
She tells me I get the last seat for the late flight…. Looking back at the long line of people behind me that now no longer have a choice, I am suddenly very grateful for my Pebble smartwatch and being able to read emails on my wrist…..It gave me that 1-2 minute head start on the rush to the counter!
Back to the waiting area.
I get another email. Flight is now 9pm.
Im done sitting, off we go to wander the lounge.
The food joints are closing and the restaurant that the airline gave me a dinner ticket for is now shut.
Blah.
I buy a bag of peanuts.
Another email. 10pm.
Another bag of nuts.
Another email. 11pm.
Cue up a 2 hour trance mix. Eat more nuts.
We get out of Milwaukee at 11.
We arrive at Phoenix at 2am body clock time, but thankfully we lost 2 hours, so its only midnight.
Need to catch the 4:30am shuttle bus to the airport, so get a few hour sleep.
The AC is broken, its flat out (making a racket) and a lot colder than it needs to be. I consider going to look for the electrical breaker board, but give it a miss at 1am.
The flight out is smooth. We drive home, shower, change, ingest way too much coffee and make it with an hour to spare for my meeting (which goes really well).
By 1pm ish, I really start to fade.
Headed home at 3pm and here we are at 6pm Sunday and I am still not quite right.
The whole trip (and a lack of solid food I suspect) really knocked me around. Must be getting old.
Flying in 2014, so very romantic and reliable.
Oh, and all those people that had to stay the night in Milwaukee?
Yep, mini blizzard the next morning, all flights out were delayed for hours.
