Tip of the Iceberg

Category lotusphere
Now that I've been back a couple days, I thought it'd be fun to look back on the highlights of my first Lotusphere.

• Meeting for the first time some of the coolest people in our community:
  Thomas Bahn, Bob Balaban, Chris Blatnick, Ed Brill, Bill Buchan, Chris Byrne, Mitch Cohen, Duffbert, Bruce Elgort, Adam Gartenberg, Andre Guirard, John Head, Mikkel Heisterberg, Theo Heselmans, Bernd Hort, Ben Langinrichs, Alan Lepofsky, Rob McDonagh, Paul Mooney, Rocky Oliver, Kevin Pettitt, Andrew Pollack, Phil Randolph, Jack Ratcliff, Mary Beth Raven, Julian Robichaux, Charles Robinson, Greyhawk, Rich Schwarz, Declan and Terri Sciolla-Lynch, Chris Toohey, jonvon, Martin Vereecken, Rich Waters, Stephan Wissel
  You know, just to name a few.
• Getting to spend some time catching up with some clients and former coworkers, one of whom I hadn't met before (long story).
• Attending some very innovative and enlightening sessions
• Being occasionally treated like a miniature rockstar at Kimono's, in the hallways, at our product showcase booth, and even a couple sessions
• Waking up on Tuesday morning unable to swallow... still haven't figured out why (allergic reaction, spraining my tongue during karaoke, who knows?). That might not seem like a highlight, but once I got over how weird it was, it was ridiculously funny.
• The response to all of the many announcements made by my employer before and during the conference (I'll be doing a series of posts this week outlining my personal take on the significance of each of these)
• Acting as courier for Bob Balaban (he gave me a rubber chicken to deliver to Nathan... no, I still don't know why)
• An 8 hour (no exaggeration) conversation with Chris Toohey (he now knows me better than most people I've known for years... sorry, Chris)
• Learning how to make my own Easy Cheese with nitrous oxide

And a couple of classic quotes:

• Bill - "These guys may be bleeding yellow, but I am sweating whiskey."
• Declan - "They're all after me lucky charms." (I was wearing a Lucky Charms hat at ESPN the night we arrived... he kept trying to steal it)
• Julian - "Ernie is the orange one, BIRT does the charts."
• My favorite: Mary Beth - "I was talking to your boss last night, and he told me, 'I have some really bright people... I'm just not so sure that they're sane'."