Ok, i did the infamous “What the Hell is a Smart Client Application last night and it went well.  We had to overcome a number of logistical obstacles.  firstly, 6 weeks ago i realized they scheduled it at the same time as “influencer party”.  i could miss that party, but i had recruited numerous industry pros for the BOF.  so, i begged them to move it – there was no alternative.  and they did….but it took the INETA folks weeks to get it changed in the CommNET and they ended up getting it changed way too late to make the print schedules.  at the same time i didn’t get the change until way too late.  when i reminded the RDs and MS folks about the session and the new time many had already committed to a VB team party.  then, to top it all off, when i got to the conf center at 8:45 last night, the room was empty, and the room it was moved to….but, thank god there was a sign.  so, i found it (with my buddy brad) in the cabannas.  The mic in the cabanna was broken, which was frustrating, but we overcame that. 

the great news is that the cabanna was filled to the max and we had an hour of great and interesting discussion.  Industry Pillars like Chris Kinsman, Julie Lehman, Edgar Sanchez, and Pat Hines (to name a few) were there to lead the discussion…and it was great discussion.  The AJAX stuff is truly fascinating to me.  Chris Kinsman straightened us out on the state of AJAX and where it might go in the future.  Brad Sherrell, VP of IT at Pacific Life was there to describe his pains of implementing smart client apps at a Fortune 500 company who salesmen’s desktops – they have no control over…AOL browsers, windows 95, you name it.  

The hour went so quickly..as predicted and as typical.  most of us headed over to the bar at the peabody afterwards to continue the discussion…where we joined a number of the other speakers “blowing off some steam”.  i staggered back to the room around 1230am, but there were at least 40 industry pillars still going strong at that point… 🙂