Convergence New Orleans Diary: Final Thoughts

That's it again.  Convergence 2009 in New Orleans is over.  Just below 7000 people have been heading home for the last two days … I stayed one extra day, so it feels like I'm the last one going home .  I'm in the plane when I write this last piece of "diary" of this Convergence - although I will be at work again when I post it (yep … going straight to work after my plane ride - I love jetlags!).

I hope it was somewhat useful for you.  I know quite some people have been reading this blog, because the hit rate I got during Convergence tripled!  Cool!  Well, I hope it was worth it for you :-).

But how was it for me?  Here are a few thoughts

Location

New Orleans is great!  Although "Bourbon Street" didn't turn out to be the Jazz-street that that I thought it would be … I found my piece of jazz at "Frenchmen" (don't know exactly how it's spelled).  "Live hardcore jazz".  Brilliant … yet very intense to listen to.
Temperature at this time of year was warm, but not too warm.  I bet, in summer (I heard WWPC will be held in New Orleans as well) , it's much much warmer.  Good luck!  While temperature outside was warm, temperature inside was (too) chilly.  Luckily, we had to do long walks to move around.  Although, many people found that a negative point about the location.  For me, it was a way to become a little bit less chilly :).

Duty
Like last year, I got the opportunity to help out at Convergence.  Being involved in the organization isn't only some kind of "satisfaction" you have, but it creates opportunities and definitely is deadly interesting.

I got a meeting with Michael Nielsen (Director of Development) and Thomas Heylsberg (Director of Architecture).  Two very big people in the Dynamics NAV team.  Interesting!  We talked about the reasons some things are in the product, but also about stuff that might get into it - mainly about the development environment, off course.  Bound to NDA, I can't reveal anything, sorry.  The stuff we talked about might never get into the product anyway … .   Just know that they are seriously working on seriously interesting stuff :-).

Sessions

Most useful session for me are "concurrent sessions" and "interactive discussions".  During concurrent sessions, presenters try to give more information (on different levels) about a certain topic concerning the product.  Interactive discussions are discussions about the same kind or topics, moderated by the same speakers.  These are the ones I like most, because you learn the real life difficulties (or should I say "challenges") and best practices.  So these I go to the most … .  Blogging them is a little bit difficult, so I don't… .

New Orleans - America

During this stay in the states, I realized again that we, Belgians, have "high standards" when it comes down to food.  I mean in a "healthy" way of speaking.  Normally I like cheese, fried food, donuts … but I had the feeling that I couldn't get anything else.  After a week in the states, I feel literally stuffed, knowing that I skipped many meals… .  Anyway, not that it's not good, just too greasy.  Sorry ...

But that doesn't take away that from all cities I've been to in the States, New Orleans is definitely one of my favorites! 

This is one to conclude:  The song "Moon over bourbon street".