Globalcomm - Photo Recap

Back from Globalcomm now, and have got a few posts to share with you now. This is a photo recap of a few things I saw and did at the show. As usual, photos courtesy of my Nokia N90.

Got a couple more posts coming right after this - one dedicated to highlights from the House of Blues parties, which will be a lot of fun. Also got one coming about my night out at the White Sox/Tigers game. I love VoIP, but live music and baseball are right up there!

First some images from the show...

Day 1 - a promising welcome from the outside...



Looks promising from the inside too - lots of big shiny signs to get your attention...




As anyone there can tell you, it was pretty quiet on the floor, though. At one point, it was just me and the birds. Not a great shot, but look closely - those specks are pigeons walking the floor!

After a while, the Candy Show across the way was starting to look more interesting... mmmm... the land of chocolate - Homer heaven....




Actually, things did pick up as the day went on. Signs of life on the floor, and Jeff's keynote, reprising his "Eve of Destruction" talk.




Later on, I attended the Telecommunications Magazine reception (no photos I'm afraid), and then the TMC/IMS Forum reception at Soldiers Field. Both were quite good - the latter was splashier, but a bit of a hike from the show venue.

Eli Katz/Baruch Sterman overlooking the field, Rich Tehrani/Neal Shact




Great renovation they've done there to expand the seating. During the conference I was lucky enough to see 2 of Chicago's major sports venues - Soldiers Field and US Cellular Field.




Day 2 - early start, but things definitely pick up.

Began the day with an early breakfast with Jeff, which was a real treat. He's raved about the Palace Diner on his blog, so of course, that's where we met. It's the real deal, esp if you love sports. I'm a fan.

Jeff with the owner, George; classic neon sign




Tuesday, Globalcomm was much more like what a big conference is supposed to be. I find it too much to take in over too little time, so you just have to pick your spots. But at first glance, it's all a bit much. Kind of like this - you get the picture.....





Just one more thing for fun to share about the show. I got a chance to travel in both low style and high style - all in a day's work I guess. :-)

For the Telecommunications reception on Monday, security wouldn't let me enter the show floor - where the reception was - since I arrived after show hours. The reception was pretty far from the entrance, so once they cleared me to come in, security was nice enough to chauffeur me over. How many of you got to do that?

At the other end of the spectrum, Jeff had a driver on hand to get us from the Palace Grill to the show after breakfast. Even though the diner is frequented by cops, the driver didn't get a ticket waiting for us all that time. I guess they know better to be nice to George's buddy Jeff!