Last week was spent at the ESRI EMEA Conference held in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London. With the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey as neighbours it is in a great location with iconic views on the outside, but inside it is more like Hampton Court Maze. Nobody, and I mean nobody, including the many guides standing on each corner, had a clue as to how to find their way around the purpose built conference centre. In the end it became quite comical to watch the antics of the 1500 delegates as they made their way between the 15 or so similtaneuos tracks. No matter where you were in the building there were people parading back and forth and peering round corners trying to find their way around. I am sure most of them must be suffering pain from craning their necks for three days.
In the end it was a small price to pay for what turned out to be an enjoyable and well run conference. ESRI are to be commended for tackling such a large scale event so succesfully. I attended as many of the user presentations as I was able and I have to say that the quality of the presentations were of a high standard. Also, the track managers, if that is what they were called, worked hard to keep proceedings on track.
The plenary sessions were enjoyable but I have to report that I didn't find ESRI's innovative view of the future to be particularly inspirational. It sounded a bit like old wine in new bottles to me so I didn't find it particularly palettable. Probably that is because, as a user, my IT wants are very basic - quite simply I want everything all the time and I would like it now!! Unachievable it may be, however, I think ESRI and the rest of their partners are going to have to work a whole lot harder if they are to persuade their impressive customer list to be inspired enough to put their hands in their pockets.
The party event was special and turned out to be a most enjoyable evening. The location of the Science museum was a great idea and the catering and the evening's events were memorable. I had a good chat with Winston Churchill who proudly told me that he was 133 years old and an argument with the David Beckham look-alike because we told him that he had been beaten into second place by Paul Reid from Sigma Seven.
Security to the Museum was tight - no ticket no entry was the warning. However it caused me some amusement when Jack Dangermouse, the ESRI big cheese, turned up without a ticket only to be refused entry. Anyway in no time at all Jack was surrounded by a hoard of his "hangers on" and the steward was persuaded to loosen his grip on the evening's host. Diplomatic incident averted but it was close one!