PDC2009 – Tuesday After-Hours

I had the good fortune to hang with Ann Finnie and Shay Fan of HP during the early evening.

We had non-alcoholic drinks at Trader Vic’s, and then went back to the Los Angeles Convention Center, or LACC for the HP Tweetup where a lot of mungo coool prizes were being given out: TouchSmart PCs, Media Center Extenders, SinpleDrives, several multi-hundred-dollar coupons, and quite a lot of $100 gift cards.

4114058886_b9c6c94dd9HP’s Ann Finnie and I with a Tiki ‘guard’ in front of Trader Vic’s 

The prizes were so good, PDC attendees gave up al pretense of wanting to learn anything, and milled around the HP booth!

I also had the privilege of meeting James Taylor. Not the R&B singer James ‘JT’ Taylor or the rock crooner James Taylor, but the real deal: the Director of Global Experience Marketing and Ecosystem Development for HP.

People like James make HP very successful: they are fully engaged, passionate, and determined to help users be productive by bringing incredibly rich user experiences to the piblic across HP’s platforms. I like that.

I also won a $100 gift card which my buddy Rick Vanover, upon my thoughts that I may want to give it away, suggested giving it to charity. I will be giving $100 to the Baby Foundation of Colorado, which provides pro bono surgical procedures to indigent Coloradans. It is run by Dr. Michelle Soriano of the Women’s Clinic of The Plains, P.C. A very good cause.

After the tweet-up, I repaired to Bonaventure Brewing for the official PDC Press/Analysts reception.

There I sat and chatted with Kip Kniskern, Darryl K. Taft, Paul Thurrott, Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Long Zeng, among several others. The libation was Grand Marnier, and I was very liberal in it being poured with respect.

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