As some of you may know, I attended the LSAW/ISPLS/WestFed Conference in Spokane last week. It was great hanging out with some of our faithful users, many of which I met for the first time. The conference itself was great and while I didn't attend any classes, I did hang out with Ladd Nelson at the Carlson Software booth for a good chunk of Thursday and Friday.
We handed out shirts, koozies, stickers and cards as we greeted people walking by. I didn't know exactly who all would be there, but I did see Rob O'Malley's post a few days prior to the event. My counterpart, Dave and I had a great dinner and drinks with Ladd and Rob one evening and it was a blast! We also got to meet Kurt Luebke, whom I didn't even know would be there until I saw a Facebook post from him with a picture from his hotel window.
We also met many other folks who had already heard of our site and it was interesting how people would hunt us down once they heard we were there. We didn't announce it for the sake of maintaining the element of surprise and I think I was more surprised than anyone there. It made me smile every time someone would stop by and say they love the site, and we got that a lot! Many folks had not heard of us but they were excited that we had such a successful forum with so many great people on board. We had a laptop on-site so everyone could see the forum and what we're doing for the profession.
The weather really cooperated, too. A week prior to the conference, weather reports were showing several inches of snow in the passes and in Spokane. I bought chains for the car and it turned out to be sunny and warm the entire trip there. People kept telling me that they were expecting a huge storm and then it just never showed up. It was dry and clear during our entire stay, and the trip back was just as sunny and warm as the incoming trip. It's almost as if Mother Nature changed her weather plans so we could make it to the conference...
Anyway, it was fun and I am humbled once again by the great folks out there who support us. We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, one and all.
🙂
Wendell,
I am glad you had a good experience. You and Angel are very appreciated for providing us with this site.
I visit it many times a day, and it is my home page.
Thank you, and here's to many more years of continued success.:-)
Now I'm really disappointed that I didn't go....:'(
A few years ago, back in the hay day of 'The Other Board', almost everybody I talked to at a conference, knew about the board and at least lurked there.
Good luck to you Wendell, I wish you a great success!
Although I already spend a lot of time here, I hope that it grows to be HUGE!
Dugger
PS-Did I hear you say "To be honest"? 😉
Radar
> Now I'm really disappointed that I didn't go....
Me too! I actually contemplated working out a meet-up with you if I were to take the long way home. But I was worried about crossing the pass with an old Honda Accord. We'll probably make a trip to Seattle at some point, so we'll work something out.
> Good luck to you Wendell, I wish you a great success!
Thank you! 😀
> PS-Did I hear you say "To be honest"? 😉
ha ha ha, nice catch!
> ha ha ha, nice catch!
LOL, sorry, I was just poking fun.;-)
The numbers at the bottom are the telling point, 87 online, 61 guests, is quite a few.
Although with 6 billion people on the planet, it's really not that many....:-P
🙂
Douglas
The conference was well attended and had good presentations. The highlight for me was meeting you Wendell. I may be considered a lurker in this forum, but I read and learn a lot and add my 2 cents if I feel it is of any value.
Thanks for having such a great site to meet and learn.
Kurt
Wendell,
It was great meeting you, Dave and Ladd. funny to be walking around the exhibitors room and some random person (Dave) handing me a Beer Leg card. Actually it was flipped over to the Surveyor Connect side, for professional reasons of course;-).
Had an excellent time at dinner with the 3 of you. I think I'm still suffering from that HUGE plate of food. Thanks again for the T-Shirt as well as this forum.
It's great to be able to put a face to some of the names. I only wish I could have met more folks from here.
P.S. Did you get a chance to run down and see Gene?
> I am glad you had a good experience. You and Angel are very appreciated for providing us with this site.
It's our pleasure! 🙂
> Thank you, and here's to many more years of continued success.:-)
Thanks!! 😀
Rob O'Malley...
Hijacking this thread for a sec...
Rob, I have something to send you. 🙂 I sent you an email requesting your address so I can send it but not sure if you received it because sometimes when I send a message via the forum the email winds up in peoples spam boxes. Figured I'd ask you here, too. Please let me know and if you can, please send me your address. Send to: noodles at harntech dot com. Thanks!
:angel: Angel
Hey Rob,
It was a pleasure meeting you and putting a face to the avatar/name, too. 🙂 Dave and Wendell may not have mentioned this to you, but they convinced me to head back to the Azteca for the huge-plate sequel on Friday night. I didn't eat again for close to 30 hours after that gorging. 🙂
On that note, I'd like to thank Dave and Wendell for the creation of this board and for their participation at the LSAW-ISPLS-WFPS conference. The shirts, koozies, stickers and cards were well received by the participants and I wish them continued success. I'd also like to say "Welcome!" to the many new registrants that I met who also signed up for the forum at the conference!
Thanks again for stopping by the booth.
--
Ladd Nelson
I could hardly walk that night. I can't believe they went back for "seconds". Man that food was great.
Did you get a Margarita? The small one was huge!
Hope everything went smooth Sunday after you got back?...
Yep, I felt the need to get tropical and tried the margarita at Wendell's suggestion. He made the right call.
All went well on Sunday but I was physically and emotionally drained afterward. Thanks again for the laughs on Thursday night and the conversations on Friday! 😀
--
Ladd Nelson
Great Margarita, eh? We had to specifically ask for the Petron margarita, so they'd use the "good stuff". 🙂
