Despite worries about long lines and getting extreme pat-downs, Boston's Logan was business as usual yesterday as I headed off to Dallas for PCMA's annual convention. I ended up chatting with some nice folks from Dallas and Hyatt in the press room (and scarfing some excellent cookies--lunch!) and so didn't get over the Nieman Marcus extravaganza there yesterday afternoon. I hear it was jamming, though. I did trot all over the city trying to find the convention center from our hotel, which is probably just a couple of miles if you know where you're going. I haven't been here in ages, and last time I was in Dallas, I was doing the show daily for a conference and never saw anything outside of the sessions, our press room, the printer, and possibly my hotel room. Looking forward to seeing more of this place this time around!
After almost strangling a cowboy at the bar in the Hyatt who tried in vain to teach me to do the calf rope twirl, I met up with a colleague to head over to the New England chapter meeting. We never did find it, but had lots of fun hanging with the Canadians as we looked. Then we headed over to last night's reception at the convention center. It was fantastic! A little light on food a non-red-meat-eater could enjoy (great nachos and sushi, though), but lots of great music, a carousel, something I thought was just a statue and heard later was an actual bull to sit on for photo ops, lasso lessons, a mechanical bull, and my favorite, the Dance Heads booth, where you could lip synch to a tune and have your head superimposed on a dancing body. I'd post the video of me, my boss, and a really good sport of a planner who agreed to make a trio with us on Respect, but I promised not to. I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt.
I have to go get ready for a breakfast meeting, then off to the kickoff and sessions, but so far, PCMA and Dallas are doing it up right and I am having a blast. After yesterday's fun, I'm looking forward to doing some learning today. More later.
P.S. Had a lot of fun doing the pedometer count last year, so I brought mine along again for this year's show. Off to a good start: 21,934 steps yesterday. Must have been all that walking around the city yesterday afternoon!