Graphing Social Patterns East Starts Tomorrow

I am here at Hyatt Regency Crystal City where surprisingly my Verizon cell phone has really bad coverage. The signal level returns to normal once I am out of the hotel but anywhere in the hotel my phone just barely shows one bar. This is becoming really annoying.

DC is great except its excruciatingly hot! We wanted to play tourist yesterday but after visiting a few spots, we decided to come back to our room.

Friday night I met Shirley Bailes who is the speaker manager for O'reilly conferences. She has a pretty tough job herding speakers and arranging conference after conference but she does an outstanding job every time.

A very big surprise for me was that smoking is allowed at the bar and around the lobby. Because of that, you can smell smoke all over. While I smoke (trying to quit), it wasn't a very pleasant feeling for my pregnant wife and so we decided to go back to our room and order room service instead.

Anyway, the Graphing Social Patterns conference starts tomorrow. I wanted to check-in today for the conference but according to the email I received, it won't be possible until tomorrow. The official check-in hours for the conference are:

Registration Hours:
Monday: 7:30 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday: 7:30 am - 5:30 pm
Wednesday: 8:00 am - 5:30 pm

My intention was to register early so I could beat the rush, but oh well.

There is also an exhibitor hall, the hours of which are as follows:

Exhibit Hall Hours:
Tuesday, June 10
8:00 am - 9:00 am
10:00 am - 10:30 am
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Wednesday, June 11
8:00 am - 9:00 am
10:00 am - 10:30 am
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

I am glad that unlike MySQL Conference, GSPE organizers are not adding the word "Expo" to the conference name.

O'reilly is requesting that all blog posts regarding the conference be tagged with “GSPEast08” and “GSPEConf08.”

So if you are at the conference and spot me (I have really short hair and a goatee), say hi! It will be great to meet new and old friends.