Heath's Random Thoughts

Hello From Nashville!

Well, as you may or may not know, I have been spending the week in Nashville, TN at the Gaylord Opryland Resort for the Forrester IT Forum. It is a week long conference on the Information Technology field, or as I am going to start calling it "Business Technology." The week consists of keynote speakers from around the industry, topical sessions on various BT information given by industry analysts, vendors and leaders in the field. Its vary educational and I already have pages and pages of notes. I actually had some down time before the 9:30 session today so I thought I would put in a long overdue post.

As I stated I am staying at the Gaylord Opryland and this place is massive. Apparently it is the largest hotel space in the US with 3 massive indoor atriums and one outdoor. There was a mistake when I checked in and the cheaper room that I had reserved was no longer available so they upgraded me to a suite that has a balcony that overlooks one of the huge atriums. They said the room normal goes for $700 a night but since they made a mistake they gave it to me for the rate was paying for the cheaper room ($179). The room comes equipped with a 37 inch plasma TV, fridge, dining area, etc. I guess I lucked out this time. Since I have been here I have tried to get some exercise in and hit the site's gym on Monday and Tuesday. I also went for a swim in one of their pools. I took yesterday off but will probably do some running this afternoon after the conference is done.

Last night Forrester sent us all to the Wild Horse Saloon in downtown Nashville, where our dinner and entertainment was all paid for. It is a huge live music facility where many famous country music stars got there start as well as performances from today's stars. They had a live band that was actually pretty good. They played a little of country and rock so it was fun to listen as I got my butt kicked in pool by some guys from Fibernet (one of the vendors at the conference). The food was good and I took a couple of picks before I left as well as hitting the gift shop for a couple of shirts for Kelly and I. After that I headed back to the resort where I met up with a guy from GE that I met a few nights ago. We went down to the Jack Daniels Saloon and talked guitars and listed to some live music for a while before I called it night. Well, that's all for now. My 9:30 session is coming up so I will try and post more later.

posted by Heath @ 9:09 AM