Siliconchef by Brian Richardson
Believe it or not, I went to New Orleans for professional reasons.
No, really. I’m not kidding.
Most people want an excuse to go to New Orleans on somebody else’s nickel. By moving WinHEC 2003 to the Morial Convention Center, Microsoft gave us all an excuse. This works well for me, since I don’t have to cross three time zones to attend a computer convention. It also puts WinHEC in one of America’s largest convention centers. This is not such a good thing, since large convention centers require the convention attendee to do a lot of walking.
I got to experience the great walk known as the Morial Convention Center on Tuesday, but the experience was expanded on Wednesday. I spent the entire day traversing four sets of escalators. Most of my sessions were in the security panel, so I spent a lot of time in Room 385. Then I had to go back to ground level for lunch and the vendor exhibits, along with several trips to the internet kiosks (e-mail doesn’t go away just because I do). When you include the side trips to the other auditoriums, plus a visit to the “innovations room”, I’m sure I burned off those cookies they put in my boxed lunch.
The odd thing about Room 385 is that it’s totally isolated from the rest of the convention. I don’t think Microsoft tried to hide their security panel from anybody, but they didn’t make it as accessible as the other topics. Perhaps this demonstrates the “strong process isolation” concept in Microsoft’s Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB).
Going to one of these conventions is always a mixed bag. Most of the guys in the office refer to my trips as “vacations”, especially when I go somewhere interesting like Japan or New Orleans. Little do they know I spend most of my day in a meeting room suffering from a strong case of “PowerPoint Poisoning” (Slidus Causis Snoozis), or devouring yet another McDonald’s value meal between customer visits because the train schedule is too tight to stop for a “real” lunch.
This trip suffers the same problem as most of my travels … mundane events set in interesting places. Between the conference, the work-related things I need to do even though I’m not in the office, and that annoying need for several hours of sleep every night I really don’t have much time to be a tourist. Tuesday night’s walk through the French Quarter might be my big New Orleans hoorah.
Well, I take that back … there is tonight’s trip to Six Flags. WinHEC tries to have it’s conference party at a theme park, and this year is no different. I don’t have anybody from the office to hang out with this time, but I do know a few folks at the convention fairly well (same crowd I see at every trade show). It’s not the same as hanging out with my real friends, but I’ll take what I can get.
