Up at 5:50 and out of the Mirage by 6:20 for the hike to the MGM for the Opening General Session. Man, it’s always farther that I think, it’s a 30 minute walk, but good to be outside for a while and get some fresh air while the city is still pretty quiet. This year breakfast for Monday is also at the MGM. But getting to the MGM is only the beginning. It must be another 2 miles to the conference center where the food is and then back a long way to the MGM Grand Arena for the session. This year they have coffee & juice outside the arena and are not making you jam up and enter thru one set of doors. This really was really bad last year.
There is a motivational speaker that they have not yet identified yet, but they’ve mentioned the phrase “power to win” a couple of times and I’m thinking I’ve heard this somewhere before. They are drawing for some door prizes, but so far, no luck. Winning an iPod would be nice.
My section, which is close to the entrance, is filling up, but a lot of the arena is still vacant. It will be interesting to see how much the 30% attendance cutback effects the conference.