ESRI Users Conference in San Diego

This past week I had the opportunity to attend a conference in San Diego for work. I've been to a few conferences in San Diego and have done most of the tourist relate activities so I only came down the day before. For reasons to be explained later I was also not in the same hotel for the full week. My first hotel was close to the airport. The bad part was that they hadn't paid their cable bill and the rest of the experience was on par with that. The good part was that it was near Old Town San Diego, an area I've never been to. It's kind of like Barkerville in BC with older buildings but there were also modern shops.

After my adventure in the less then desirable hotel on the first night I moved to my second hotel and got ready for the opening day of the conference. They call this part the Plenary and it's a mix of inspirational messages and product sales. ESRI is a bit unusual compare to other conferences I've been to because they do the Plenary for a full day. They kept things exciting though as they had Jane Goodall and E.O. Wilson attend. Being a science based application the ESRI conference is very left leaning on the political spectrum. It was fun learning about the charities these two have started. Goodall is 85 and Wilson is 91 and still contributing to the good of the world.

The next three days were a whirlwind of talks and wandering the hall floor. The conference is at the San Diego convention centre and had 20,000 attendees. This is the same convention centre as Comicon which starts next week and despite it's size we only filled a portion of the halls. I think one end of the hall to the other was close to a half kilometer. I was walking with a colleague who had an Apple watch and I think we walked 12k on one day. I should be well conditioned for Disneyland next week.

On the last day of the conference ESRI hosts a party at Balboa Park. They shut down an area that includes the Natural History Museum, the Art Museum and several other halls. The party includes music on multiple stages with DJ's and live  bands, acrobats and plenty of food. It was another long day of walking. Last year I left on Thursday evening and I'm glad I stayed the extra day this year. A great event.  I'm actually staying to Saturday because I'm flying to San Francisco to meet the family for a day before heading to Anaheim. A long road trip for me this year.