by Larry Richman
May 14, 2007 9:07 PM
It's been a long day of ups and downs but I'm safely ensconced in my hotel room with my registration materials and credentials in hand.
The day began a bit rocky. I wanted to be sure to arrive early at Philadelphia International Airport for my 8:25 AM flight, so I cut my sleep short (got about 4 hours) and beat the morning rush to get there with plenty of time to spare. Or so I thought. Little did it occur to me that the day after Mother's Day would be a major travel day. And apparently nobody at the airport thought of it either. The lines were so long to get through security that I was sent from Terminal C (where the gate for my flight was) to Terminal B, then from Terminal B to Terminal A, after which I had to go back to Terminal C. But the plane got off on time and the flight was a quick 5 hours. It was a breeze getting out of LAX, a half hour cab ride to the Sheraton, and I was in my room one hour after the plane had landed. Amazing. And actually too early. I was in my room by 12:30 PM but could not get online until 3 PM (check-in time). And the first shuttle bus to the Los Angeles Convention Center would be at 4:30 PM for registration beginning at 5 PM. So I had some time to kill.
Generally the first thing I do when I arrive at a hotel is put on CNN. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out where to find CNN, only to discover that the channel it was supposed to be on was a black screen. So I called the desk. "Sure, we'll check it out and call you." So I waited. And watched Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Okay, he's not half bad. Two hours later still no phone call. I went downstairs to look for some snacks. I tried the gift shop in the lobby. Nothing. The cashier says, "look across the lobby." I turn around to find out that the hotel is actually attached to of a shopping mall. Macy's Plaza and the Sheraton are the same building. Yay, a mall. So I don't need to use the $5 bottle of water in the room.
On the way back I stopped at the concierge desk. They knew nothing about the CNN problem. "We'll send someone up." Finally a maintenance guy arrives and says, "oh yeah, the satellite is broken and we can't get CNN." Thanks for telling me now, several hours after I first asked. Then the concierge desk finally called me and I gave them a piece of my mind. Sure, no big deal, but I'm a journalist covering a major convention and part of my job is to know what's going on in the world, and to see if the convention is being covered on CNN. So MSNBC it is.
The first shuttle to the LACC leaves at 4:30, and I'm at the Center in 5 minutes. There's no wait at all to pick up credentials and I've got my first swag in hand: a cool bag, t-shirt, jump drive, and assorted books and disks. Best of all, I won't have to be part of the hordes of attendees who will be trying to register in the morning. It's sure to be a mob scene.
I decide to scope out where the press room is. Even though it doesn't open until tomorrow, might as well see where it is. Oh boy. It's about as far from the bus drop-off as you can imagine -- about a 20 minute walk. At least I'll be prepared. There's an opening reception tonight (which I'll skip, thank you) and tomorrow morning is Bill Gates' keynote at 9 AM. There's a breakfast at 7:30, so I plan on catching the first bus out of here at 7 AM.
Tomorrow everything gets underway and I'll check back in when I can. Check out the
WinHEC website for more information.
Get us some juicy tidbits. I know it won't be about Angelina Jolie.
