php|tek09: Day #0

First day in Chicago started out early, like 5 o’clock early! Getting to the hotel was a breeze after getting in touch with MTACon’s assistance hotline (thanks guys!), yah.. its a big airport.

The Check-in was awesome, no problems, great wi-fi (some form problems, like white and white not being really good coloring) a bath and off we go. Not before meeting some core guys, like Derick Rethans, Andrei Zmieski, Sara Golemon and so much more on their way out to internal dev meeting. The rest of the morning was a usual Brazilian vacation… denting the credit card as always.

Returning to the hotel i ran into a big group downstairs, including such names as Eli White, Keith Casey, Gregg, Sebastian and so many more. Talking led to a hop over to Shoeless Joe’s, or Shirtless Schmoe’s, whatever! Dinner and beers followed by scary developer drunk tactics with some more celebreties like Ben Ramsey, Elizabeth Smith, Michalangelo Van Dam, and various others, along with FAILS stickers, traded in the black market by Spoons.

Getting back to the hotel i had the luck of running into more people, featuring Lorna Jane and Chris Jones, “old buds”. The whole evening was great and really cool talks with lots of people, like Gregg and geolocation and other technolgies, Michelangelo and a great talk about communities and such topped of by a talk with the group back at the hotel on conferences and Brazil’s role in the whole game.

Preparation Day was awesome, new contacts, new friends, Let the conference begin in the morning!