The flight down was good, basically on time. This was the first time in a long time that I had to check a bag (well technically it was 5 days since my Tucson flight, but that's irrelevant). When I got to Orlando, my bag actually beat me off the airplane. I got tot he carousel and basically walked up and grabbed it off the belt (my walk was a little more fast paced when I say my bag about to go around the far side and I would have to wait for it again.
I made my way to find my co worker Udaya so that we could grab a cab to the hotel. We got in the cab and arrive at our hotel (Wyndham Orlando Resort) about 30 mins later. We got checked in, took the golf cart shuttle to our building (# 10, hmm... Fitting, never thought if that sooner...) and then went and grabbed something to eat as it was 8:30 and I hadn't eaten since lunch back in Winnipeg which was a pizza lunch in the office for a lady who was going on medical leave for some reason, don't know exactly why but I'm assuming it is something to do with her rheumatoid arthritis.
(Side note - I love westjet flights from Toronto to Montreal or vice versa free beer and wine to compete with Porter airlines).
Where was I, oh yeah dinner. We went to a place called Kobe Steakhouse, a new Japanese steakhouse just across the street. I had cashew chicken, it was good but couldn't eat much because it was pretty late and I lost my appetite, kind of like I'm thinking is going to happen today when I get home at 930 or so...
Afterwards, back to the hotel and to bed. The next morning started early, Udaya invited me to go or a run with him... At 6 am... I figured, sure, why not, what's sleep on the first night. So, 6 am we started out on our run (route here). The weather was a balmy 48*F, remnants of Hurricane Sandy. We returned at 630, showered and then went for breakfast before getting on the shuttle at 830.
We got to our booth and did a quick orientation (and I met all of my colleagues from Wisconsin, some whom I met previously but most I had not).
Most days I spent time just manning the booth. I was involved in a few meetings with existing and potential customers. For the most part, I felt kind of useless because I don't know a lot of the technical details on our products. But, I generally know enough to answer vague questions and if the questions got more technical j would get someone else who knew lore than I did. If course, if it was engineering and certification that they were interested in, I was their man. But most times it was not....
One meeting we were asked when. I could move to Peterborough to support one of our customers. Afterwards Udaya and I were laughing saying that I must have made a good impression last month when I was there... Don't worry, I'm not going to Peterborough. I suspect this customer was maybe the one who sent a recruiter after me a couple years ago looking for a "certification engineer for a southern Ontario client"...
Overall, I learned a lot and got to meet some new people and reconnect with some people I dealt with in the past.
Just to give some context here, this conference is SO BIG that:
- There were two full size helicopters on display
- Many full size mockups for Pillatus, Hondajet, Lufthansa Teknik, Cessna, Gulfstream and Embraer business aircraft.
- Pratt and Whitney had several engines on display
- Some companies had cars they were raffling off, I think there were 6 in by he convention centre.
- I took this video of a model/mockup Boeing Business Jet (called a BBJ)
- Honda had one of their race cars on display
- I would claim that Gulfstream had the largest display, however Bombardier wasn't far behind
There is so much to talk about... I'll post pictures tomorrow.
I was a little disappointed that I didn get to the static aircraft display where they have actual airplanes, that flew in, on display. I simply ran out of time... Too bad because the biggest airplane from Bombardier was one that I had inspected a few weeks ago, don't worry I let people know this, including Udaya who was going into a meeting with the customer where I told him the aircraft serial number.
Today was pretty calm, sounds like numbers at this tradeshow are down quite a lot from what is usually seen. I saw one paper that said the numbers yesterday were down 4%, only 24,000 people showed up... We figure a lot of this has to do with Sandy and the impact this had on international flights and flights from t eastern seaboard.
Flight from Orlando to Toronto was a little delayed but nothing major. Toronto to Montreal was an hour late but I made it here.
Now, at 9:50 it is time for supper.
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