Photo-A-Day #1651

Today I flew to Las Vegas for Blog World Expo. I had a nice early morning flight out of Providence on SouthWest Air. The plane was pretty packed and we also were carrying “The Ocho!”. “The Ocho” were a group of guys approx 40 something, all buff body builder types with ropelike veins and such. They all came on with boas and cowboy hats and even had an inflatable friend. They gave the boas to the flight crew for the trip. This my friends is why you fly SouthWest to a place like Vegas. Crazy.

Landing in Vegas I quickly connected with Buck “Daddy” Rogers. Buck was one of the winners of the Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack and he helped me out on Tuesday with a great guest post. We hopped on a shuttle and went to the MGM Grand. That wasn’t our hotel but rather where we were to pick up our KA tickets. We each got a ticket to see Cirque Du Soleil courtesy of Jessica Berlin (@jessberlin) who is the social media person for Cirque Du Soleil (@cirquelasvegas). We recieved the tickets free of charge as long as we blogged about what we thought of the show. I will get to the actual show later.

We got the KA tickets and headed to the monorail after a quick lunch. Monorail to the Las Vegas Convention Center and we popped into Blog World Expo to pick up our badges. Buck could go into sessions today but I couldn’t, that was okay because a number of people wanted me to do interviews and take pictures and things like that. I ended up just standing around waiting to do the interviews. I didn’t end up doing any interviews because it was a bit disorganized. However, I will do them tomorrow.

We attended the sponsored conversations keynote panel discussion. It was okay, not great and not that good. I really wanted to see more of Ted on this one but just wasn’t happening and when people go up to ask a question they spend 5 minutes plugging themselves in such a roundabout way that you don’t even want to hear their question by the time they get to it.

After that a trip to the hotel to check in. Luckily we did get a room with two double beds. there was some speculation that we might have to share a king size bed with a wall of pillows between us. I just have visions, scary visions of Planes, Trains and Automobiles (if you haven’t seen this rent it, NOW). Luckily also I still had Marriott Rewards Gold Status so we could get into the concierge lounge.

After a little time to relax in the hotel we made our way over to Fat Tuesday’s in the Miracle Mile Mall. This was a Jason Falls (@jasonfalls) Tweetup. There I met a number of very nice people including a guy I respect for his online cred, Chris Pirillo (@chrispirillo). I mentioned that I liked his podcast and he was self deprecating about it, it is good stuff Chris. Then I mentioned that I was going to see KA and he lit up like you wouldn’t believe. He’s seen many Cirque Shows and that one was his favorite. With a Buildup like that I was pretty excited to see the show.

Our seats for KA were right with Dina, Mike and Gary from MarketLeverage. I have to also state that I am the official Blogging Ninja for MarketLeverage on this trip. That means that ML took care of my Blog World Expo ticket (disclosure).

KA was incredible. I loved the aspects of the circus mixed with a tribal, steampunk type flair. I was rivited to my seat the entire time except for a slow jungle type scene that actually put me into slumber. But once that scene was over I was up and ready for more of the amazing action. It is hard to describe exactly what KA is but essentially it is a story of two siblings who get separated and their individual journeys to reconnect with each other.

Walking into the theater I was greeted by a performer who bungeed down from his perch. I was simultaneously freaked out and impressed. Then after the show Dina, Buck and I played with the Xshot and then a passerby took this shot of us together.

After the show Buck and I went back to the hotel on the monorail and I snapped this shot of the Exhibit hall

We are so close this year, staying at the Renaissance. Buck and I split one night and then he graciously and generously offered me the other two nights as he got sponsorship to attend.

By the Way I am using my sister’s Powerbook G4 which cannot perform many of the actions that my regular computer can. It is a learning curve and providing me with much frustration. I apologize if anything ends up looking funny,.