Today in the Seattle Times’ Here & Now Traffic Watch:
Several thousand people are expected at Safeco Field today for a private, daylong business gathering. Pedestrian and vehicle traffic, including more than 200 charter buses, is likely to impact the stadium area from about 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
No kidding.
The lights. The sounds. The demos (many were high-level highlights from PDC). The chocolate bars. OK, scratch the last one. Robch has a good summary on his blog tonite, ‘though he did miss the remaining two items from his top five list (not to mention XBOX 360, TabletPC, Windows Starter Edition, the new suite of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices and of course Windows Media Center Edition… so it should probably be a top ten list).
So I’ll add these two for now to round out the top five as it’s bedtime for the kids (aka “the witching hour”):
4. The presenters: I was impressed by just about everyone, and how they noted the importance of our customers in almost every one of the sessions. When you look at the suite of products and services discussed this summer and our incredibly customer-tech-product focused execs, I’m happy to be here.
5. The crowd: Microsofties at their best, with super enthusiasm even in sub-arctic weather (think March of the Penguins). Kudos to those with the gumption to import noise makers and rock the house.
Word of the week: “Zany” Considering the source I’ll use that in my general responses from now on.
Phrase for the rest of the year: “Heavens to Betsy.” Continuous Improvement is already in my vocabulary.
(Added 092405: If you’re interested in reading — and listening to — a joint interview with Bill and Steve just after the meeting, check out the article in today’s Seattle Times.)