Day 1 Recap

Day 1 at Insight 2009 is behind us now and it was a good day, by all accounts. After breakfast, we started the day by attending the huge general session which started with a fairly cool 3D presentation (hence the glasses above) and moved right into the business of kicking everything off. Some awards were presented, and two guest speakers trotted out to make impressions in very different ways, the first by detailing her company's use of Deltek's accounting software to overhaul the way they go about their business of building more effective artillery for military customers -- she actually trotted out a 3 foot long shell and made a crack about getting stopped at airport security because she told them she was bringing it to the Magic Kingdom. Heh. The second speaker is an astronaut and regaled us with tales of his 5 month stint on the spacestation Mir, including almost losing his life in a fire there. And somehow he's also telling us that his management of a fire in space is like our management of projects here on earth at work. Ummmm... okay, but not really -- as uncomfortable as it can be to have to admit to someone that I can't make GovWin do exactly what they want because of software limitations, I'm not going to suffocate in a tube 250 miles above the earth after I made that admission.

Afterward we attend the a session on Vision where they show us how great version 6 will be and then Cathy and Jenn go one way to have lunch while I wind through this ridonculously large hotel to allow Deltek to videotape me talking about GovWin and how we use it at CS. Went well, though I was overcome by a fit of the itchies about halfway through and had to scratch my nose a few times -- the video guy nicely tells me they won't use that part, haha and YAY.

Next another session and then, finally, DUN DUN DUN, I get to present. It all goes pretty well, actually, I don't choke on water or drool or forget my slides or accidentally use profanity, though I did say both "heck" and "sucked" -- afterward at a cocktail party, the Deltek dude that was in the room during the presentation told me that both were totally fine contextually and that he thought it went very well. There are 8 or 10 people attending, they all stay the whole way through and ask me questions during and after and seem to think I know what I'm talking about. The funniest thing that happens is that, in the midst of answering a question, I mention we don't use Outlook at CS so someone asks what we do use for email. Of course, I tell them Lotus Notes and a woman in room makes this noise:

I mean, really? Come on, it's EMAIL, not porn. The Deltek dude even laughed about it afterward, hehe.

Anyway, on to Day 2.