NCLSi Conference from an exhibitors viewpoint

[WestCoastCal]

[Maybe I should have titled this NCSLi travel log]
Flying into Reagan National is a pretty cool deal, all the banking and maneuvering the plane did was pretty amazing, Whoever was at the controls was a former bush pilot.  National Harbor is really amazing, opened in 2008, it's a quaint little town, lots of bars, restaurants, tourist shops, apartments, hotels and convention center in the Gaylord right on the Potomac river across from Alexandria, VA.  The Gaylord is beautiful with a huge air conditioned atrium with shops and bars, some of which were individual buildings within.  There were other conventions/conferences going on during the week, met lots of European attendees for their reward conference-those at the top tier were living large, all expenses paid!  There was a military brain injury symposium going on with military from all service branches.  I got a chance to speak with some of the military (bought a handful of active duty sailors a beer--yeah!) doctors, psychologists, and psychoanalysts participating, the subject matter just wrenched my heart, what important work they do.  Lastly, there was a convention for airport operation personnel.  Hopefully this paints a picture of how massive this convention center is.  Sunday morning is set up day and to see the people from the different companies.  Fluke has the largest and most complex setups, Bill Spaeth and Marie always seem to bear the brunt of the setup and its always good to see them.  If you don't know Bill, he's definitely worth knowing.  Sunday night was opening, it's pretty much for exhibitors only, this is the time to renew acquaintances, see who/what companies have exhibit space and most important, see what kind of give-aways companies had.  BTW, beers were $7 domestic, $8 imported-yikes!  The food was free and very good; I did the most damage at the dessert table.  Monday was a pretty busy day, talking with current and potential clients, roaming around, hanging with Schwartz for a while (come to think of it, I didn't get a beer out of him, but first time I've seen him with one), giving demos, wandering around checking new products and bench marking the competition.  The exhibit hall was laid out well, there were multiple coffee stations set up throughout the convention hall in the morning as well as multiple soda and cookie stations in the afternoon.  I guess this was to get more foot traffic throughout the convention hall.  I'm not sure if this was my former shipmate from the USS Prairie Craig Gulka's idea, but it worked, they just need to keep it going and continue to look for ways to help the exhibitors get foot traffic.  Monday night was the presidents reception, we opted for steaks and beers at McCormick & Schmicks (spelling?). Probably the worst $25 ribeye I've ever had, my theory is add $10 to the price and give me a steak that doesn't disappoint.  My boss had the same thing and he said his was good-go figure.  The National Sports bar later on was a very popular place, got a chance to talk to some of the people I didn't get to chat with earlier and met lots of people from the different previously mentioned conventions.  Tuesday was a repeat of Monday; up until lunch time, this year the lunch was served in the exhibit hall, this kept the attendees in with the exhibitors, many attendees are busy with workshops and symposiums and do not get much time in the exhibit hall so I think this was a good thing to do-exhibitors spend a lot of money with travel, hotel, shipping, booth space, etc. It was good way to keep people in the exhibit hall-potential return on investment.  (Gulka;s idea or did he steal it form Lisa S.?) Soon after lunch a subway car went by-OK it wasn't the subway it was the 5.8 earthquake--what the heck??? I'm not in California??  We were evacuated for hours.  In town, bars and restaurants were closed down, we did find an open market, bought some supplies and took refuge in the Marriott bar (closed) and breakfast area.  People were jokingly blaming the California contingent for bringing the quake with us.  There were rumors circulating that the exhibit hall would be closed Wednesday due to damage reported on the floor above.  The 2 busloads for the NIST tour turned around (I think they made it all the way to the parking lot)-no tour for them, what a disappointment.  For future reference, have the NIST tour after show hours-it sucked not having the opportunity to go.
Tragedies are no stranger to the time frame of the conference, remember the bridge collapse 4 years ago in Minneapolis?
Most bars and restaurants opened up later.  For dinner, we took the ferry to Alexandria, VA-outstanding!  Incredible dinner!.  Wednesday, the exhibit hall was opened on time, again it was the same as Monday and Tuesday, with less foot traffic though.  Lunch time was time to break down the booth, I was volunteered to accept an achievement award on behalf of our engineer for his work on Interval Analysis (RP-1) who could not attend.  No speech, just a picture taken, I got out of booth breakdown and it was really cool to accept on behalf of Greg Cenker.  Rumor has it the new method will be replacing the A3 method and will be called the GC1 method.  If you don't know Greg-put him in the same wise ass, yet likable category as Bill.
Hurricane Irene ruined the vacation I had planned after the show, I was lucky to change my flight out of Philly from Sunday to Saturday, so I missed the storm.
So that's the travel log from an exhibitor's point of view.  Next year is Sacramento, CA, hopefully I'll be able to attend.  Until then, be productive, be safe, lower your turnaround time and make lots of money.
p.s. The Measurement Science Conference is returning to Disneyland for 2012.
p.s Hawaii, I met your colleagues from EAG, if you get a raise you owe me a cold one!
p.s. John Treekiller-great to see you again!
p.s. anyone know if Z540.3 was reaffirmed?

[RFCAL]

Z540.3 was reaffirmed and ready

[measure]

p.s. The Measurement Science Conference is returning to Disneyland for 2012.

I wish that MSC would pick another, more serious venue. Long Beach was great, for example. Disneyland was OK once or twice, but is getting quite old nowadays, in my opinion, and also is too expensive for many attendees, as well as not 'serious' enough.

[Zephyer]

Hmm a serious venue.  How about a depressing one like slums of East Chicago?

[metrologygeek]

Pasadena has always been nice. I also wish the venue was almost anything other than MouseLand.

[RFCAL]

Ditto Long Beach