Hot-lanta? I think not

On the road again, oh how I hate to be on the road again...okay, so it's not quite right, but it fits this trip. I ended up getting shipped off to a Users Conference in Atlanta earlier this week. Sounds like fun, right?

It started off on a bad note...I haven't been feeling all that well for the last few weeks, and it really caught up to me on Sunday when I left. Between the flight down and the cab ride to the hotel, I was feeling pretty sick. Sadique and I got to the hotel where the conference was, set up the booth, and then decided to find a nice restaurant for dinner. What we found was a local pub where, unknown to us, Georgia law still allows you to smoke. Just what my system needed. So by the end of it, I'm about ready to hurl my guts all over the place, and we still have a cocktail mixer to attend. I end up leaving early (about 10 minutes in), and let poor Sadique fend for himself.

Monday morning rolls around, and I'm feeling little better. Oh well, the show must go on...down to the booth to finish setup, and I realize two things. One, no one ordered a power outlet for our booth, so we have no where to plug in anything and two, I forgot the power cable for the monitor. A quick chat with the organizers, though, and both were solved in minutes. A big thumbs up for the organizers. 9:45, the exhibit opens, and we get flooded with people...people looking for stamps. See, they have this draw where if you visit all the booths (proven by this stamp), you can win $100, $300 or $400. So we had tons of traffic, but no interest in our product. Oh boy, this is going to be a fun couple of days. The conferences/workshops started at 10:30, so by 10:35, the hall is a ghost town, and no one showed back up until 4:30 for another 30 minutes. What a waste of a day.

I'm still not feeling well that night, so I ended up skipping on the bus tour they put on. After all, I had to be ready for another day of twiddling my thumbs. And sure enough, Tuesday was a repeat of Monday, but since there was another cocktail party, this time in the exhibit hall, I had to stay not until 5:00, but until 8:30. Fun stuff, especially with a 9am flight the next morning. All in all, the show was a complete bust, and I didn't even get to see anything of Atlanta. Last time I do that sort of thing.

It wasn't all bad, though...I did end up getting a nice travel mug, laptop bag and new mouse out of the deal.