One thing Myrtle Beach does have in abundance is nice places to eat breakfast. Pancake houses line highway 17. After a fitful night of sleep, I started my morning with an excellent breakfast buffett at one of said houses, then headed over to the convention center.
Today was pre-conference, which usually means a day-long meeting of district tech coordinators with state officials. I tried to slip into a session on streaming video, but there wasn’t room and I hadn’t pre-registered. I really didn’t want to sit through discussions of SASI. My fears were realized – one presenter bored us with Death by PowerPoint, then further drove the nails into the coffin by asking rhetorical questions which no one answered, thereby extending the tedium further. Some of the information was important.
After lunch I was able to sneak out and join a Digital Photo Safari sponsored by Olympus. The presenter gave us several hints about using point-n-shoot cameras, then sent half of us out to take photos around the convention center, while he gave more instruction to the other half. I didn’t really learn anything new. However, it gave me a chance to escape, and sometimes it’s fun to cover material with which you’re familiar. Also, Olympus is sponsoring a photo contest, and I may think about entering. Most of these participants were rank beginners, but there might still be some stiff competition. I enjoyed having a semi-legitimate reason to get out and shoot some shots.
After the workshop, my headache was getting the better of my, so I skipped the opening keynote and headed back to the room. A nap and a quick walk on the beach later, I was feeling much better and was ready for the evening’s activities.
One of our vendors had invited us to dinner at House of Blues. I got there early to find the parking lot covered with bikes and vendors. I took tons of pictures of bikes and other weird stuff.
Soon it was time to join my colleagues. The dinner buffett was quite good, and the band was lousy. Back in the 80’s I remember that if a band started with "Joy to the World", you knew the show would stink. This band started with YMCA, so I knew it was not going to be a stellar show. You save that one until people are drunk enough to enjoy it. Regardless, I still had fun seeing lots of my friends from around the state. There was even some karaoke and dancing to liven the evening, and by the end I really didn’t care how the band sounded. No, I only had one beer.