everlastingNow

IxDA’s Interaction’09 in Vancouver this year was a huge success. As, apparently, so was its massive Twitter stream flowing out of every nook and cranny this show had to offer. Rumor had it, we reached #5 world-wide in terms of Twitter volume. With ubiquitous flat screens throughout the Four Seasons and sister hotel down the street, everyone was an instant star with such insights as, “I am sooooo drunk.. double fishing (hah aha) drinks,” and, “Looking for other Australians,” among the more tame. For my own part, I own some confusing low-points in sake-sodden tweets along with my compatriots at other bars (see related blog posts).

For those of you as dumb as me, I offer The Drunk Idiot’s Guide to Twitter. And, for my own part, I’ll be searching for the gmail equivalent of Mail Goggles on Twitter. Let me know if you find it.

I’ve pioneered some of the most sobering and drunken points in my company’s history. Happy to have led the way on both extremes, though I’m finding the middle a better place these days (age will do that to you). Thanks to my employees for not walking when I drunkenly fired them via cell phone calls… especially Feeny who wasn’t quite sure if she should come back after Christmas break so many years back… before current social media tools were a glimmer in anyone’s eyes. Thanks to those who drunkenly fired me back in subsequent years. And thanks to my text message function not burning out out when friends take drunken text aim at me (fortunately offline from the public tweet-stream), if I don’t show up where I’m supposed to be or leave a bar sooner than they might want me to.

As for that thing about the parasite that doesn’t cause diarrhea (and my misspelling of the word in the tweet), I have no idea what it’s all about. It’s just the tip… of the iceburg. Perhaps someone can invent a complementary twitter app (better yet, put it out for iPhone users) so that we can travel back in our Twitter timeline to figure out what the heck we were really talking about.

our first day on the job, sponsoring and hosting a booth at the interaction’09 conference for ixda in vancouver was a great success. we have already met an incredible diversity of people, great ideas, compelling conversation and some new friends to boot. the students from FSU have been great to meet as well. some wonderful new talent coming up the ladder.

of course, the ms surface table has been a big hit as well. our team developed an application that let’s attendees share contact information just by dropping their conference badge on the table and swapping the pieces that show up around them. very easy, fun, and a great conversation starter! as always, the table achieves everything a kiosk might, but without all the angst that often accompanies that older form-factor.

getting on the plane at o’hare, malone loosens up and ulaszek checks us in.

malone troubleshoots some additional nits and nats on the machine, making sure the networking is working with an integration to crowdvine.

jason gives a brief introduction before we get rolling…

and, finally, after a long day, our boys get to cut loose at a sushi bar and throw down some tasty sake.

we had a brief introduction to surface a few months back, delivered by one of our developers, dan thompson. here’s a quick 10-minute overview as presented at one of our company meetings. (apologies for the early audio interference; it clears up shortly after the start.)

since we’re showing our first stand-alone app at the current ixda interaction’09 show in vancouver, figured it might be good to put a little context around it before jumping into more of what we’re doing now.

Minutes from our IxDA grand opening!

just a quick photographic report for now. first, we have mr. ulaszek exuberant upon arrival and not having eaten for 8 hours. the table is set with belgian-style craft beers and the scenery behind is snow-capped mountains and sea planes landing in the harbor. can you blame the man for losing his mind, if only temporarily?

then we have one what might call the ‘period of bad ideas’ for the evening. it all started here, and it’s mostly kevin malone’s fault… because he found his home. big ups to the bar for honoring one of their own and giving him a free beer. we felt so welcome we did shots too. whose ideas was that??

day-two, we’re down to business… having finally cleared the ms surface table from a 3-day oddyssey in canadian customs. good news, the software doesn’t work quite right. malone, ulaszek and our techies bach in chicago worked tirelessly to have things ready to go for the conference the next morning.

@cmortensen you can bring whatever you want, morty!

@cmortensen 50′s and sunny. Come to Canada for the warm weather!

#ixda09 setting the table for Vancouver conference

there’s a certain disposition that you need when things start to overwhelm. fall back within yourself and rely on the things that are most core to who you are. you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find there.

for my own part, i have been hopeful that president obama would continue to emote the sense of confidence and hope that inspired so many through the election process. in many ways he has. but, most recently in working to get the stimulus package through, cracks seem to be forming… or a back-slide to some politcal games. the rhetoric of our economy and the global economy going from bad-to-worse or from ‘critical to catastrophic’ is exactly what we don’t need right now.

as i’d mentioned in an earlier post, our monetary systems are as much or more an economy of trust than anything else. as such, we need to engender and bolster that trust through genuine confidence. our leaders need to lead right now. i hope to see more language like that from this new president, and frankly any other leader out there… myself included. we won’t get out of this morass in any other way. we have to will ourselves out of it and the first steps are taken from a confidence within.

for my own part, i call it a ‘be here now’ focus. understanding yourself and what’s around you and acting as best you can. but the point is to act, be positive, and keep moving. we all have to do that. reduce the noise. turn off the news. be yourself.

Ready to rock Vancouver.
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