this is my happy place
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g9TXTSCccM[/youtube]
…I’m off to Helsinki to talk Social at Nokia with some of the best in the business.
If you’re one of the lucky few who are going, I guess I’ll see you there.
If not, watch this space – no doubt I’ll write some of it up 🙂
More to follow…
I mentioned in my last post that I felt like I had to write a little bit about very short stay in San Francisco.
After the madness that was CTIA in Las Vegas, stepping off the plane that Thursday evening at SFO was like a breath of fresh air…
I flew to Las Vegas (via Dallas Fort Worth), on Sunday March 31st.
Did a bunch of SpinVox things (worth a click through – great video) for them whilst I was at CTIA.
Lots and lots of fun.
I hung out with some cool folk, took part in some cool events and generally just had a good time… You get the idea.
The following Thursday however, I had to fly to San Francisco.
THANK YOU LORD.
I don’t think I can actually find the words to say how much I love that place. Really. It’s just… Brilliant.
Regular readers will know that this wasn’t my first trip to SF, so I kind of know my way around a little bit.. which was nice.
I landed at something like 9pm and I was scheduled to fly home the following evening around 7ish so I had :
*adopts film trailer esque voice*
“Less than 24hrs in San Francisco!”
🙂
So what did I get up to?
Well, after sharing a cab with some new friends that I met in Vegas, I must’ve got to my hotel around 10ish I guess?
Checked in, took my cases up, chilled out… I was gonna hit the sack then and I thought…
“Y’know what? I love the bar here. If I’m only here for a short amount of time, I best make the most of it. I think I deserve a Gin & Tonic…”
So off I trotted down to the Redwood, (beautiful bar this – it’s got Harry Potter Paintings on the walls… if you know what I mean), ordered myself a glass of Tanqueray & Tonic (extra lime) and just sat… and chilled.
Lovely stuff. About a half hour or so later I decide to go for a wander outside, get some air etc… and I end up chatting to this random guy, Tomas was his name, Danish chap, chatting to him about SF.. where’s good to go out etc.. He was in town on business with a couple of friends and had just been turned away from a club as they weren’t allowing large groups of men without any women. It happens.
Anyway – he and I head back into the bar and there are his (also Danish) mates talking to these women.
“Right, I can see where this is going…” I thought to myself “…I’m gonna have one more then head to bed”
I got it half right…
I was chatting away to Tomas just off to the side of the group when one of his mates called over to get the round in…
“Gin & Tonic!” I replied… and suddenly I had a LOT of attenton!
“Oi! You’re not Danish!”
“I never said I was!”
Que much laughter and explanations etc… These girls were in SF for a friend’s wedding. Great bunch they were too. The lot of us all ended up going clubbing together. (A place called ‘Slide‘ – Yup. It had a slide. Brilliant).
Fantastic night. Great company too.
Was really refreshing to be out with a group of girls who weren’t out on the pull or who weren’t looking for anything etc… They just wanted to have a drink and a chat and maybe a little dance and generally just enjoy their evening.
The Danish guys were mental. But we loved them for it. Hehehe…
All in all a great night was had  🙂
Friday rolled around so I went shopping… Bought LOADS of T-Shirts (more on that soon), some new boots, some DVDs and, surprise surprise, a new suitcase to bring it all home in. Heh heh…
Before I sign off – A blog post wouldn’t be complete with me adding in some relevant media…
First – some photos from SF.
A few from my recent trip but most from my trip in October last year… Hope you enjoy them.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Oh – and as a point of interest – ALL of the photos above were taken with a Nokia N95.
LOVE that phone! 🙂
And second…
One of the great things about being in the States is you get to see some of the latest shows/films etc…
And you also get to see some of the awesome posters etc and you often get a hint for what’s coming too…
So for instance, last year, there were Heroes posters everywhere.
This year however I kept seeing things like this one —–>
And variations thereof…
Had no idea what it meant. No idea what it was about. Nothing.
For some reason I kept thinking of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Good thing is these posters became suddenly very clear to me upon my return, when my new (and actually quite cool) friend Sizemore invited me along to a ‘Blogger’s Screening’ of the new comedy, ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall‘.
And bloody good it was too, (thanks dude).
Full write up to follow…
🙂
Greetings one and all! I’ve just got back from the States and I am shattered.
UK –> Dallas –> Las Vegas –> San Francisco –> UK
…and breathe…
Had to fly to Las Vegas for a work thing see…
via Dallas.
Rather amusingly, it being the first ever flight from LHR (London Heathrow) to DFW (Dallas, Fort Worth) the Boeing we travelled in was given a welcome ‘hose down’ by the airport’s fire trucks…
I didn’t get a picture of that – but I found another example
Anywhoo – Vegas.
Woah…
Nice place to visit and wotnot but I’d never wanna live there. Jeez.
I stayed at The Palms Hotel/Resort/Casino… The one where we held Mobile Geeks of Las Vegas… aka Mobile Geeks of London ON TOUR. What a fantastic night THAT was. Huge props to Mr Jeb Brilliant of Brilliant Expos for making that happen… and for also swinging it so we could just walk straight into the club/bar in the next tower. Nice work.
So yeah – What else did I get up to?
This was me, on the last day of the show, having just sat down and relaxed for the first time in about five days…
Not soon after this pic was taken I flew to San Francisco…
There’s more to come soon, I just need to get some shuteye…
Night night.
Zzz…
We’re bringing the MGoL to Las Vegas!
So – You may or may not know that a while back I set up a little facebook group called ‘The Mobile Geeks of London‘. Basically a place where I could meet people like me I guess…
Hehehe…
And well – it’s grown.. and grown.. and grown! …last count, 294 members!
We had our 3rd official meetup a little while back and it was great.
(I’ll do a larger post on MGoL in general sometime soon – yeah – should do that)
Anywhoo – I mentioned the other day that I as headed to Las Vegas with SpinVox for CTIA and within 24hrs I had an email from my friend Jeb Brilliant (no really – that is his name – and yes, he is Brilliant) telling me that he loved the MGoL idea and had been waiting for a chance to get one stateside…
And so….
HERE WE ARE!!
The stuff below has been taken from the facebook group. If you’re not on facebook then drop me an email at yahoo do co dot uk and Iet me know you’re coming… Looking forward to it already!
🙂
___________________________________________________________________________________
It’s CTIA next week and on the evening of Monday 31st March at The Playboy Club in Las Vegas the Mobile Geeks of London are having their first ever OFFICIAL ‘overseas’ meetup!
The Time: 8pm onwards
The Date: Monday March 31st
The Place:
The Playboy Bar
Palms Casino Resort
4321 West Flamingo Road
Las Vegas, NV 89103
52nd floor of the Fantasy Tower
http://www.palms.com/playboy_club_1.php
(note – it ain’t a strip club – I checked)
Also – it being the first ever overseas event – I have to break my self-imposed ‘no sponsor’ rule…
The upside of this being that
a) We get a fantastic venue thanks to Yougetitback.com
and
b) Your first drink is free thanks to SpinVox
So:
Mobile Geeks of Las Vegas brought to you in conjunction with SpinVox.
Sponsored by Yougetitback.com and organised by Brilliant Expos…
AND FINALLY!
I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London on this mailing list are, by definition, NOT based in Las Vegas.
But next week… some of you may be.
Either way – Hope to see you there!
(and if you know anyone else who might be in Vegas – let them know too)
http://www.spinvox.com
http://yougetitiack.com
http://www.brilliantexpos.com
Yesterday I had one of the best conversations, EVER.
It was only when I had this conversation did I realise how good life actually is at the moment.
An old friend called me up and it went a little something like this…
“Hi James, s’been ages! How are you?”
“Me? I’m good man. Yeah, it’s been SO long! We should definitely catch up sometime soon.”
“Great idea, you free tonight?”
“No mate. Not tonight, going to see R.E.M. at The Royal Albert Hall.”
“Oh. Nice!”
“Yeah. I thought so. Random ticket appeared in my hands from up high. Can’t say no. Got a box and everything!”
“Cool! Ok, how about we do lunch one day this week? When are you in London next?”
“I think I’m in town tomorrow…”
“Ok, we’ll do lunch tomorrow. Sushi or something?”
“Oh. No. Can’t mate, sorry. Bugger. Got an interview at the BBC.”
“WHAT?!”
“Yeah! I know! Cool huh?! Rory-Cellan Jones, Technology Correspondent. Should be good!”
“Right then, the weekend? We could have a lazy pub afternoon on Sunday. A few beers, roast dinner.. proper Sunday y’know? How’s that sound?”
“No can do mate. I’m flying to Las Vegas on Sunday…”
“WTF?!”
“Yeah! Flying out with SpinVox on Sunday afternoon for a big Wireless conference called CTIA. Looking forward to it, should be cooool! Never been to Vegas before….”
“Ok ok ok! When do you leave Vegas?”
“Thursday…but…”
“Ok! We’ll go out Friday!”
“No, I didn’t finish. Thursday I fly to San Francisco to host a lunch for some west coast bloggers… Fly home Friday night. Land Saturday afternoon.”
“Jeez, you’re gonna be knackered!”
“Yeah man, I know. Then I’ve got my show on the Sunday at Madam Jo Jos!”
“Right then. I’ll come see that then.”
“Hehehe… Yeah! Ok, do that!”
🙂
On top of ALL that, found out today one of my dear friends (who has NOTHING to do with the mobile industry) just so happens to be in Vegas at exactly the same time as me!
So we get to hang out and stuff which is just all kinds of cool…
This, by the way, isn’t some massive brag of a blog post. Life is going well at the moment. And I’m loving it.
Had my 6mth review with SpinVox this morning.
SIX MONTHS!
It seems like only yesterday that I was handing in my notice at Refresh Mobile…
How times flies when you’re having fun eh?
Speak soon folks..
🙂
…and what a mission it has been!
I land and realise as I’m getting off the plane that I left my wallet next to the wifi hotspot at London Heathrow.
Whoops.
I check my emails and I have a converted voicemail – (cheers SpinVox) from someone who not only found it, but handed it in, got the details of the guy/department she gave it in to and then left her number too in case I was still around. Rock.
Go to customer services here – explain all, show them the email. They get on the phone. My wallet is fine but I have to pick it up in person.
Bugger. No money, no cards and no way of getting to the hotel.
The man standing next to me says:
“Where you staying?”
“The Clift” says I.
“Oh, I used to run their Limo company. Give me two minutes…”
“But I have no money! I can’t pay you dude…”
“I’m sorry Sir, but you lost your wallet right?
“Right.”
“And how much was in it?”
“About $200 US.”
“And it’s been handed in and all the money is there and all is good right?
“Yes.”
“Well that’s some good karma right there Sir so that means you’ve
obviously done something to deserve it. So hey, have some more –
Take the Limo to the Clift Sir, and enjoy your stay San Francisco.”
F**k. Me. Wow.
I get to the hotel. Can’t check-in, no credit card.
“But I have my passport?”
“No Sir, we need a card, sorry.”
I call up a random US colleague who I know is down the road at the conference. Explain all. He turns up, checks me in, gives me $200 ‘to last me’ and then rocks back to the conference!
I then unpack, shower and stuff (my room is awesome) and head on down to the Nokia party I got invited to. Get given a whole bunch of free phone stuff as well as an invite to their exclusive after party. Which I went to, made new friends. One of which I got really drunk with and we passed out in the hotel lobby in the hours of this morning.
Later that day, I get an email from my friend and colleague Dan Appelquist (Great guy, from Vodafone, runs Mobile Mondays) – he knows I’m in town – says would I mind picking up a parcel for him which he forgot when he
was here last week..
“Sure…” says I.
Dan then says I should hook up with this girl,
“Cathy, you guys are both in the messaging / Web 2.0 cross-over space. I think you would both enjoy meeting up and you might find some synergy to what you’re both doing. You’re both out at CTIA going to various parties (not that I’m jealous) so I leave it to you.”
I look at the email. I read it again.
DUDE!!!!
The girl I got hammered and passed out with in the hotel lobby the night before? …Yup.
Cathy.
Brilliant.
Small world or WHAT?!
Unbelievable.
And I’ve only been here 24hrs. Ha. Let’s not even talk about today when I rocked up the conference and EVERYONE is wearing a suit. Apart from….
ME!
Flipflops, torn jeans, sunny gs, t-shirt… Like this in fact:
Very amusing.
Felt like that scene from Pretty Woman..
Love it.
More to come soon – promise. But this place is awesome. At the time of writing I’ve been here 48hrs and I wrote this yesterday but lost my connection before I could post! Grr… Ah well.
More stories to follow…
🙂
So here’s a photo of that poster that I mentioned previously.
It really does demonstrate the enormity of the festival.. I mean.. Truly HUGE!
I still can’t believe it.
The pink sticky on the right? My tent.
That area at the top left underneath the photo of the yellow flags? The Stone Circle.
God knows how far that is – but I must’ve walked it at least twice a day every day.. Not including walking between stages, getting food & drink, nipping up to camp every now and then..
Just.. Massive!
Oh.. And that diamond shape in the middle?
That’ll be the Pyramid Stage.
Poster courtesy of the Q Glastonbury Review magazine.