Thursday...UPDATED

Greetings from San Antonio!  I'll get my own pics up later, but here is one off the web that captures the feel of the CW Marriott Hill Country Resort where the conference is being held.  (It is also the location for the recently completed PGA tour event, The Valero Texas Open.  The golf course is a TPC course, one in the same system as the Quad City course used for the John Deere tournament in July.)

For the record, I'm staying at a Quality Inn a few miles away at $65 per night rather than the $200+ per night here (plus resort fees, etc.).  LtPC is a little on the cheap side of the line.  With a grocery store and a wine shop nearby.

Travel yesterday was relatively incident-free.  My connection was in Memphis, an airport that I don't recall ever visiting.  I had to change concourses, but had plenty of time to do so.  Both of the planes that I was on were the smaller ones with just two seats on either side of the aisle, and not that many total seats, maybe 60 or so.  Not sure how the airlines make money on these small planes.

As I mentioned on Twitter, I had packed larger containers of toothpaste and shampoo than allowed for in carry-on luggage.  Funny how the mind works: I had consciously left a wine opener off my packing list, but didn't even consider the rules for the hygiene products.  And Murphy's Law was almost certain to apply as I just knew that the bag would be gate-checked.  But since I would have access to the bag while in the terminal in Memphis, I can't really gripe all that much.  It was my error.

It took less than a week for a small spilling of wine on the new couch.  What a shock!  I like the fact that the leather doesn't seem to stain.  Even the pillows that I bought are dark enough that I shouldn't have any noticeable wine highlights.  We'll see how it performs in the first Winniferous test.

The keynote speaker at the conference this morning was former U.S. senator from Connecticut, Christopher Dodd.  Here he is in a pic with his buddy.What a blowhard!  He's the guy on the financial reform law from last year, the Dodd-Frank bill.  His speech was what you would expect from a guy who sees himself as a public servant with only the public in mind.  I repeat, what a blowhard!

More here later during the afternoon session.

NOW LATER.....

The last session...a welcome event.  Actually, the speakers today have been pretty good (after Dodd).  Including a couple of attorneys whom I've heard numerous times.  I never feel real good after listening to them, but I do know that they know their stuff.

This is a  program sponsor who doesn't print a full binder of speaker outlines.  The booklet handed out has the agenda, CPE turn-in forms, evaluation forms, and some speaker profiles.  The session outlines are available online and I will print off at least a couple for reference purposes.  I wouldn't call it "going green".  I just think that it reflects the reality that this is a group that is highly technical and does everything else as paperless as possible, why give us hard copy that will ultimately get shredded?  That we have to carry home?

After one day, I consider this facility an upper-tier operation.  It was obviously built to handle larger groups, is well-staffed, and doesn't skimp on the little things.  I paid a discounted fee of $750 in November to the program sponsor for the two day event. My guess is that the average fee paid was between $800 - $900.  At 500 attendees, you're getting close to a half million dollars of revenue.  Hmmmm.  The sponsor could pay $100,000 a day to the resort, and still come out ahead.

Lots of the IPad (or comparables) in use by the the attendees.  I continue to feel that this Dell laptop is a dinosaur/doorstop.

It's gotta be five o'clock somewhere,

BCOT