Prague DevCon, Day 1

I decided to skipped Alan's keynote because I'd seen it at DevCon in Phoenix two weeks ago and wanted to go over my sessions one last time before presenting them (in keeping with Rick's suggestion to practice, practice, practice). I then wanted to go to Craig's session on Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Presentation Foundation, but jet lag got the best of me (although it was 11 am, it was 3 am by my internal clock) so I had an hour nap instead.

Lunch was a submarine sandwich and banana, and then I presented my Extending VFP with VFP session. One thing that's hard for me to get used to is the lack of feedback by European audiences. I mean no disrespect -- it's a cultural thing and I was warned by other speakers last year at the German DevCon -- but it's still hard to tell whether my ideas are sinking in or not. I agree with Dave Crozier's assessment; it was a pretty intense session, so if I do it again, I'll try to lighten up the material a bit.

I attended Craig's Object Thinking session and enjoyed it. As Dave pointed out, some of the concepts are a little controversial, especially the somewhat anti-data ones to a VFP audience. However, it's always good to challenge your viewpoints.

I then presented my Adding IntelliSense to Your Applications session. This is a somewhat esoteric session, in that it's not something every VFP developer would use, but in speaking with several attendees afterward, I know that a least a few will make use of the information.

A group of about 20 of us went to dinner at a restaurant somewhat removed from the hotel (it took about 20 minutes of walking through winding alleys, parks, streets). The food and beer were very good, although the service was very slow -- it was nearly two hours after ordering before our food finally arrived. Igor was kind enough to escort Alan, Craig, and I back to the hotel, as we never would have found it on our own.

I finished up the day catching up on email, talking to my wife, and reading a great book, The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (I've read several of their books and am a big fan).