Coming to you from the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, OH! I was skeptical last year when I saw this tweet from Peter Shore
but was super excited when my 'Perfect Ten: The Data Model" session was selected! This is only the second time I have presented outside the SQL/database community. It is kind of thrilling to be selected by people that don't know you!
Pre-Day 1: Settling In
I arrived in Cleveland on Monday afternoon and Peter, who is also speaking at the event, was gracious enough to collect me at the airport and drive me out to the Kalahari Resort, about an hour drive. We got checked in and went to our rooms and then met back out in the lobby and went to find the conference registration area.
We got our speaker badges, thank you card, and gift. Then we grabbed our lanyards and added some ribbons. We wandered around the conference area, checked out the rooms and got the lay of the land!
Then we headed to the burger place for dinner. As we were being seated, I saw the woman who had been next to me at the registration desk, so after we got our table, I went and asked her to join us. Her name is Therese and we had a great time! I had the Frenchie burger. tots, and margaritas.
Came back to the room after dinner and went to bed...however the people yelling in the hallway and the children running and screaming prevented me from really getting to sleep until super late.
Day 1:
Slept through my alarm - got up late!! Grabbed a quick bite to eat at the breakfast buffet (pineapple, boiled eggs, and bacon) and then headed to the Building Trust and Breaking Barriers (with LEGO!) because LEGO!!
It was a fun session on building something and how important communication and understanding is.
I was the build master and had to describe to my team how to build the
#6742 Mini Off Roader Truck
from the picture on the box. No instructions, don't get to take the box, just whatever I could remember. Now, if my teammates had been LEGO guys, it might have gone better, but they weren't and it went about as poorly as you can imagine. Next we were given a set of requirements that helped but not enough. And finally, I could look at the instructions but had to run back and forth between our build site and the instructions and relay the build. However, we didn't get it completed but it was a lot of fun!
After lunch, both Peter and I attended a session on Terraform and Ansible. I don't know that I will ever use that but at least I can talk with the infrastructure guys at work now and have a clue what they are talking about!
After the session ended we decided to go off resort for dinner and decided on Longhorn Steakhouse. I invited another speaker who had been part of the Codemash mentor program, Stacie Bacon, and her and her husband Josh joined us and we had another great dinner including #MangoMargarita and awesome conversation!
And that's a wrap for Day 1 ~ I'll be back tomorrow with another update!
ps - I just realized this evening when I opened my computer that I'm in Eastern Time Zone!
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