Searching Beyond the Paid

Monday, June 04, 2007

First Day of SMX

Well, I actually haven't gotten my registration materials yet, but I am here in Seattle, in the Edgewater Hotel. What a place. Of course it should be, for $279/night... Anyway, in about an hour, I'll be registered and ready to check out all the sessions.

There actually was an event last night, but I missed it. Thus the main point of this post...

Getting here was an adventure, as airline travel usually is these days. My flights were on schedule, which was great (and surprising). Getting to the hotel was a different story. Since this place is so pricey, I'm trying to save money on other things. So, instead of taking a $40 cab ride, I booked a $22 round-trip ticket on the Gray Line "Airporter" shuttle. Ugh. I guess you get what you pay for. The shuttle was 20 minutes late, and then the driver yakked on the intercom the whole way to downtown Seattle. He told us at least 3 times that he hadn't gotten a lunch break since he started the day at 1 p.m. (it was now after 7 p.m.). Then he told a bunch of jokes. Whatever. Well, to get to my hotel, I had to take their "connector," which means I got off the main bus from the airport and into a shuttle van. No problem. But the yakky bus driver took my ticket and kept it, and gave me one little stub in return. I didn't know how the system worked, so I didn't worry about it; but then when I got in the shuttle, that driver told me I needed my original voucher. So he chased down the bus and argued with the guy, who finally gave me all the tickets I need for my return trip. The rest of the way to the hotel, the connector driver complained about the other guy. Very unprofessional. I don't care about the breakdowns in their silly system - I just want to get to and from my hotel in a timely manner.

Based on this experience, I realize I need to leave very early for the airport on Wednesday when it's time to go home. Not what I had planned, but whatever. And by the time all that was said and done, there was only an hour left of the MSN party. I didn't feel like getting cleaned up to go there for an hour when I was already exhausted from a long day of travel. Today should go better!

I'll post more as the show progresses.

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