But Did I Sleep Here? Noooo

So the first 48 or so hours in Seattle were split between this hotel and the one I slept in…or tried to sleep in when the Japanese girls next door could be convinced that 3AM was time to stop singing along with crappy Japanese soap operas. This hotel, the Westin, was nicer, but mainly I spent time in various conference rooms listening to panels discussing sustainable nonprofit consulting, how to use blogs in the nonprofit world, or how open APIs are the wave of the future except for Microsoft.

Oh, and trying to be Mr. Shake Hands Man, winning friends and influencing people in hopes of someday liberating them from their grant money. Unfortunately, the friendliest people I met were other consultants attempting to do the same thing. Tricksy! Tricksy!

Nonetheless, I did meet a couple of people and speak a few wise words on blogging, but I think next time to get noticed I’ll have to be on a panel. Even though our company name was on every friggin’ coffee cup in the place, people gave me a blank look when I said who I represented.

There was a brief interregnum in the Space Needle, as Salesforce.com threw a very nice party with a nice amount of booze. I ran into a couple of clients of ours, and met a few more consultants, including a Croat raised in Brazil (I think…one of the South American countries, anyway…I was a couple of Alaskan Ambers into it at this point).

I’ll spare you the work-oriented bits of it and just note that I think I got our money’s worth, or as near as I could come to it without being a natural salesman. That brought me to Friday night where I saw a couple of friends who had moved to Seattle–thus began the brief but intense tourism part of my stay, which shall await the next installment.