Photo-A-Day #2015

Where to begin about today. How about 4:00am PST when I woke up after 3 hours of sleep. I was really thrown off from the flight out here. Really thrown off. So I got up and I decided that I would listen to some podcasts and I did but then got bored and couldn’t go back to sleep but didn’t want to get on the computer so I took out the iPad and watched No Ordinary Family on my iPad and the ABC app.

I have to say I was either overtired (probably the case) or the show was just that good but it made me tear up a couple of times because here was a Dad on TV that you could actually be somewhat proud of. Despite watching 2 episodes back to back I cannot tell you the names of the characters but the mom is played by Julie Benz (Darla of Angel and more recently Dexter’s wife) and the dad is Michael Chiklis (of the Commish and The Shield, I’m just going to forget about the Fantastic Four movies). What I liked about this was her was a Dad who was trying to keep his dysfunctional family together and have a good time and make family memories. They are a bit dysfunctional but there is an underlying and undeniable love that this family has for each other that says that there have been years of the parents getting things right. However, things haven’t turned out exactly like they have hoped and this makes for a very interesting show that while it is about people with superpowers it is truly about a loving family.

That really had nothing to do with BlogWorld & New Media Expo but I had to comment on this show because it was worth it. I then used my hotel room’s tub because it is huge and why not. After relaxing a bit I showered and headed downstairs for the opening keynote by Scott Stratten (@unmarketing). I have never heard Scott speak before (his session was opposite mine at ASE10) but his keynote was so powerful and moving that I whipped out my Kindle and bought his book immediately. After the session was over I went to the lobby and got one of the free physical copies of the book and asked Scott to sign both my Kindle and also the book to a lucky BenSpark.com reader. I’ll be giving away that book to one lucky reader of this blog in the very near future. I’m going to call the giant giveaway session SwagsGiving. Scott’s book won’t be the only thing up for grabs either. More on that as we get closer to SwagsGiving. Scott had some pretty amazing takeaways but I think this cartoon sums things up nicely and much better than I could do it. Scott was funny and engaging, challenging and raging and in the end really won me over to find out what else he has to say. He was also very cool when we took this photo.

After the keynote and meeting Scott I ended up shut out by the sheer numbers of attendees to Chris Garrett’s session Creating Killer Content so I went to Brian Solis’ session Content Creation vs. Content Sharing. It was a decent session and I hung out with Jennifer (@Mami2Mommy) whom I met at M3 Summit. She is really cool and introduced me to some nice people at the opening keynote because I sat with her there too. We kept running into each other in the same sessions.

I then switched things up and went into the session on innovative plug ins for your Real Estate blog. No I don’t have a Real Estate blog but I was again shut out of the session I wanted to go to because of the numbers who wanted to go see Darren Rowse speak. I used the opportunity to listen for new info and also catch up on some online work.

After that I went to lunch and spent time talking with John (@VegasGeek) and Aaron (@ahockley). These two great guys are also photographers and amazing people. I had a great conversation with them about some technology items like the Seagate GoFlex products and some iPad apps.

Post lunch I caught up with the folks form Collective Bias, picked up some swag from Kodak to give away at my session. I got to finally meet some of the great people that I have been working with for the past couple of months. I got to meet my contact Monica from collective Bias. Monica worked with me on the Shave New World campaign as well as the Sonicare Challenge campaign. Along with Monica I met Jerra from Collective Bias and she helped coordinate my being a sponsored by Seagate blogger. Very cool.

I was also interviewed by the guys from DadsTalking (minus Jim, I met him later on tonight). I learned more about this great community of dads and what they are doing. I also got to be filmed and to talk about how I stay connected to the family while on the road.

I also met Tina Clark and Jennifer Cisney from Kodak. Tina got me 4 cameras to give away. Some here tomorrow at my session and some for SwagsGiving.

There was just so much to today and I’m only at a point of a little past lunch. the sessions int he afternoon that I went to were a bit forgettable but I did get to hang out with Joseph Barton of Seagate. Joseph and I have been working together on the products that I’ve been testing at home like the GoFlex Home, Net and TV devices. Great stuff and it was fun to talk more with him about what we will be doing in the near future. More to come from Seagate.

I went back to my room to unload all the swag that I got and then rested a bit. I didn’t sleep but did relax. Then it was up to the 60th floor for a private launch party to Learnable.com. My friend Patrick invited me as one of his guests and the party was hosted by Darren Rowse of Problogger and digital Photography School. A really nice guy. Down to earth and humble and shy in all my interactions with him. And I really miss missing his session, here is a great cartoon recap of the high points. I didn’t get the courage to ask him about being on my photo-a-day podcast but I figure that when it is actually a podcast I will ask. I know, I shouldn’t put off the ask. The party was really nice and I got to meet Jim Turner whom I’ve spent time talking with online via DailyBooth. A really nice guy.

I was not into the whole party all night thing at the official party at Liquid at the Aria because I wanted to be fresh for my presentation tomorrow so I headed back to the room early. I used the Kodak M580’s automatic panorama feature to take this shot in the lobby of Mandalay Bay. Now Off to double check my presentation and create the ebook that people can download after the session.