March 18, 2004
The Convention Schedule...entry,
Sunday evening, March 21st, I begin my 2004 convention schedule in earnest. This will be my biggest year yet, as those things go. I'm spending all next week at Novell BrainShare, and if you're going to be there, odds are really, REALLY good that you won't see much of me in any sort of a social setting. I'm going to be so firmly buried in presentations, analyst briefings, press briefings, and customer meetings that the only free time I have left, according to my calendar, is the time I'm spending asleep.
On Friday, April 16th I'll be a "Nifty Guest" at Penguicon 2.0. My schedule looks much nicer for that, and in an amazing twist I'll be representing both Novell AND Schlock Mercenary, with Novell agreeing to foot my expenses.
Fast forward six weeks... it's now May 26th, and I'm in Johannesburg, South Africa for BrainShare Africa. My schedule here promises to be onerous, but I WILL be making time to buy another pair of New Rock boots at the Sandton Center.
Four short weeks later (with an interregnum for a family vacation at Aspen Grove Family Camp) and I'll be back on the early side of the Atlantic, this time in The Hague for the GroupWise Advisor Summit: Europe. That's June 23rd and 24th. I'm the keynote speaker, what with me being "Mister GroupWise" and all that for Novell. I've got no clue what my schedule will be like.
July... blessed July... I will NOT be going to Comic-Con International. I'll be relaxing in the summer heat of Utah, not, I repeat, NOT traveling at all.
August 12th finds me at the First Annual Fandemonium convention in Boise, Idaho. If you live anywhere near Boise, BE THERE. First-time conventions tend to be inexpensive and wildly enthusiastic. You won't want to miss it. Especially since I'm one of the Guests of Honor, and for the first time ever (and the only time this year) Sandra and my kids are going to get to come along.
September 13th rolls in with me in beautiful Barcelona... except I'll be indoors the whole time at BrainShare Europe, and not buying anything because by now I will have run out of money.
September 26th brings me back to lovely Las Vegas, Nevada for the fourth time in fourteen months. This time it's the U.S. version of the GroupWise Advisor Summit, and if the Advisor Media people aren't already sick to death of me, I'll be the keynote speaker again. Needless to say, since I've run out of money by now, I'm not going to be gambling. Not that I gamble, mind you... I'm just saying I'll already be broke, so why push it?
October 8th through the 10th is Linucon in Austin, Texas. I'll be a Guest of Honor there, again doing double-duty as a superstar of the Novell world and as the God of the Schlockiverse. And by then I'm sure my ego will have been inflated enough by prior appearances that I'll actually take myself seriously when I say that. If you're in the area, be sure to come by. Bring pins and burst my bubble.
That's it... that's the whole schedule right now. From where I currently sit, alone in an empty house, four days into a week of bachelorhood, it looks enticing. I'm sure once I'm surrounded by you wacky, wild conventioneers, I'll begin wishing for my quiet little drawing table again.