Tampa, FL #1
On May 3, 2008 I left for Tampa, FL for work. I am down here at a User’s Conference hosted by a company called Saxotech. I am going to be here until May 9, 2008. I am very happy that I am here, but I do wish that I could share this beautiful place with my wife, Jodi. That would be the one thing that would make this trip more fun and more memorable.
For the first 4 nights that I am down here in Tampa, I have been staying in the Embassy Suites in the Waterfront District of Tampa. The view is gorgeous, the weather is awesome, the scenery is unbelievable, and we haven’t had a bad day yet. For the other 2 nights that I am here, I am going to be staying in the Hampton Inn, a sister company to the Embassy Suites.
The plane ride down here went pretty smooth. I can’t say that for everyone who came down here from our company. A friend and co-worker of mine had an elderly gentleman die from a heart attack on his flight. He said that the guy died about 20 minutes out of Tampa. Once they landed, they had to stay on the plane for about 30-45 minutes longer than normal because the Emergency Responders had to come on the plane and take the body off. What a sad and weird thing to happen. You never think about that happening when you are flying, but I guess that it can happen anytime and anywhere.
We got down here and got settled in on Saturday. I have ate some of the best food that I have ever eaten while I have been down here. The hotel is one of the nicest hotels that I have ever stayed in, and the weather has been almost perfect, actually it has been perfect.
We had a couple of sessions on Sunday in the afternoon, but things didn’t really start to kick off until Monday morning. We had a full day of sessions on Monday along with meals. Last night we went to a reception at one of the big wigs from Saxotech, his house. It was really nice. Today (Tuesday) we have had sessions all morning and then this afternoon I have basically been in meetings the whole time and not having time to attend the sessions during those times. I have meant with a lot of the big wigs from Saxotech and big wigs from other companies that are here. I have definitely been working diligently to expand my professional social network, and it is going very good. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we have a couple of sessions before the closing remarks, and then everyone else that is down here from our company is going to be going home. I however will be staying here for two more days doing some training at Saxotech’s Headquarters, which is only about 5 minutes away from the hotel, so that is very nice.
I will post more later on my trip to Tampa.
Thanks
