Friday, June 10, 2011

SCGS Jamboree - Post 1: We're Here!

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Yawn...getting up at 4 a.m. is not fun.  It's dark outside... but we were at the train station by 5:30 a.m. to catch the 6:10 a.m. train to Burbank.  Got here at 9:30 and the Marriott shuttle bus arrived soon after. 

I knew exactly where the genea-bloggers would be - in the seating area between the lobby and the West Tower.  Thomas MacEntee and Gini Webb were busy handing out the geneabloggers goodie bags (there's LOTS of good stuff there!  Thank you, sponsors!).  There were lots of hugs from old friends and new - got to meet Caroline Pointer, Diana Ritchie, Angela Kraft, Donna Peterson, Kim von Aspern, and others (I should write them down!). 

Went over and registered with Paula, and then checked into the Marriott.  Took the stuff up to the room,  put all of the collected ribbons on the name badge, and back down to Blogger Heaven (as I call it - we gather there for the free wi-fi, it costs $12.95 a day in the room. 

Stopped on the grassy knoll for a hot dog and cookies for lunch, then off to explore Blogger Island.  It was well populated for awhile.  The wi-fi in the hotel public areas is free, but it is inconsistent.  My Google Reader loads and freezes after 10 or 20 clicks, and need to shut down the browser and load it again.  I'll try reading one blog at a time next time.

Wandered off to the Exhibit Hall to see the vendors.  Quite a few society booths this year, more than usual I think.  Stopped and talked to Earl Mott at AncestorSync/Sharing Time, Bruce Buzbee at RootsMagic, Sandy Rumble at GenDetective, Grant Brunner at Geni.com, Leland Meitzler at Family Roots Publishing, Ron Arons, Joel Weintraub and Steve Morse at Black Sheep Books, my friends at SDGS, Janet Hovorka at Family ChartMasters, and more.

Returned to Blogger Island (in the corner of the Convention Center) and found that most had gone off to the first set of presentations at 1:30 p.m.  The most popular seems to be Jana Broglin's "Prostitution in the Wild West."  Talked to Drew Smith, George Morgan and Kim von Aspern, and now they're off somewhere too - I'm the only castaway still on Blogger Island right now.  It's lonesome here.  Just me and the Milky Way chews.  Blogging about it, too!

Stay tuned, I'm not sure who will come rescue me.  I'm tempted to leave the laptop here and go wander in the exhibit hall more, but have resisted the temptation so far.

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(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work (RSS feed readers excepted).

2 comments:

Susan Petersen said...

Enjoying Jamboree vicariously through everyone's blogs and tweets, Randy. Thanks for keeping us in the action and be sure to say 'hi' to my blogger buddies!

Bobp said...

Randy, did you catch last night's Padre game with the new kid Rizzo, he looks good, made a good defense play too. Bob