Tuesday, August 18, 2009

SecondLife SLCC Redux

What a fabulous time. Oh yes, you will here to the contrary and I will give you my reason why the complainers are so so so wrong.

Let's take care of complaint business first. The big complaint was 'disorganized." And, although the complaint is accurate the intensity of the complaint is foolish. Okay, the programs, name tag badges did not arrive until Friday morning (7a.m.) so Thursday's events were posted (in marker) on a board at the reception desk. (not to hard to figure out what to do.)

Another complaint was the Tampa hotel was more convention friendly then the St. Francis. This is a valid comment in that the breakout sessions were easier to find and the hotel lobby larger with more open seating.

The third complaint was regarding the wireless internet speed and the need to charge the room landline ethernet to our hotel room and hope they removed it at checkout (Of course they didn't till I showed them). A bit of a hassle but hey it was all workable.

A very valid complaint is from the Musicians. At the Musicians Ball the techinical (wiring etc) was a complete mess. But the Ball itself was a smashing success.

Enough about the complaints...on with the JOY>>>>>>>

The hotel rooms, the bed linens were incredible. First Class. Lisa, Skylar, Lily and I shared two rooms. Lisa brought enough alcohol to satisfy any Pre AA party. The St. Francis is a grand old lady with a beauty not built today.

I went to several of the break our sessions. They were superb. Attendance could have been better but speakers were well prepared and the presentations were quite enlightening. The sheer number of presentations and the variety of topics dwarfed the 2008 convention. Kudos to all the presenters. You all represented your expertise exceedingly well.

The Big Speech - Philip Linden - Well, you got to love our rock star leader. The girls swooned over him (and some of the guys too.) His speech though (Evolutionary/Revolutionary) was a bit of a rehash from the year before. But his imagination of the future was right on target. Ray Kurzweil is always amazing. I've followed his ideas (speech recognition etc) for nearly two decades.) M Linden showed us his family slide show (photographers...he needs lessons on composition, technique....well everything about before clicking, during clicking and after clicking.)

And this is where the event exploded into BEST EVER. After the Luau (thursday) we all met at a bar/restaurant [Molaskey's Pub so to speak...love you Apple and Nasus for what you do] and an impromptu jam session. Pailey, Cylindrian, EvaMoon, Jule, Rosedrop, etc etc....played as we drank and ate....it was simply 'marvelous.'

Friday was the Odd Ball. I don't have much to say about this since I did a short show and messed it up. I think I held the mic wrong, there was no spotlight (lucky me since Lauren is getting a bit paunchy) and I wasn't very funny. However, there was plenty of Trance music and Tuna Oddfellow did a great show (despite my closing the cab door on his fingers.) The finger smash happened going to dim sum with Bettina Tizzy as our guide. She sat to my left and Crap to my right. Seven others rounded out the lunch table.

Friday night, after the Odd Ball, we all ended up in the Hotel Lobby with a few musicians strumming and several people singing. Everyone either got drunk or high...many both into the wee hours of the morning. I would tell you more but I'll wait till all the pregnancy announcements are made in the next few months.

All of the firstlife avatars attending are just incredible lifeforms. I don't have room to mention them all but I spent time with Bevan, Blaze, Sloan, CallieDel, Lailu, Candi, Skylar, Lisa, Lily, Gia, Jule, Cylindrian, Orchid, JT, Paisley, Buyers, Eshi, Hypatia, Starr, Yxes, EvaMoon, ToryLynn, Misty, Dusty and so many my detox brain can't remember.

Saturday afternoon we attempted to do Lailu's play "I Gave At The Office" in both First and Second Life simultaneously. We did do something but it wasn't as smooth as we had hoped. CallieDel managed to fall off the stage. We only had two Ethernet lines with three of us so Candi volunteered to try to do her part wireless (actually the cord wouldn't reach her seat so I used it.) And CodeWarrior somehow did his technical magic. Through it all (and this was probably the most disastrous of all the events at SLCC, our one and only, Lailu kept her 'can do' smile.

Saturday culminated in the Musicians Ball (which I got to Emcee and therefore gained entrance to the Green Room. You do not want to know what Musicians do in the Green Room but I think it's probably named for the morning after.) Ed Lowell helped me go from a noobie emcee to a somewhat capable one. Skylar gave me the idea that made the show. Let the audience in firstlife speak to the audience in SecondLife.

There are so many wonderful memories. Pinecrest Diner. Lori's Diner. The Hotel. Union Square. Walking around the town......but what made the event SPECTACULAR were all of you who were there and those of you who were there in SeconedLife.

So, the complaints can only come from those who have not yet learned how to 'satisfy' themselves by the joy of companionship. Those who looked to closely at the faults then the beauty of the whole. Oh, I'm sure there are some complaints I haven't heard with value (lost luggage etc). But, I suspect most avatars will look back and say, "I'm so glad I attended SLCC 2009"

P.S. maybe I'll blog more on this


8 comments:

Orchid said...

Well said. The joy of companionship...

Terry said...

Some of the complaints have filtered in to us "in-world", and of course our play had problems. But I felt the workshop went well.
Even so.... I so wish I had been there. I hope there is a next year!

Skylar Smythe said...

I hated to see my friends work so hard on their shows/and presentations and then struggle with technical issues which interfered and in some cases negated the effacy of the overall message. They had important stuff to share and say and teach... and they were "hobbled" to an extent by the communication (hence lack of attendance) and technical burdens that they could neither control nor get assistance with.

Lailu showed incredible grace under fire, and is a real inspiration in person.

Many people think (as I did) that the convention was actually put on by the Lindens. It isn't. It is put on by a group of SL volunteers.

This changes the standard of expectations dramatically in my books.

The people that went solely for the purpose of spending time with their SL friends were not disappointed.

It was a good experience in retrospect.

Skylar

Anonymous said...

Oh well complaints aside Lauren, you give the overall impression of a fantastic week end, a great time had by all.

From a view of an SLer who couldn't attend I so wish I could have made it. I can only imagine what it would be like as an RL Avatar spending time with a lot of other like minded folks who actually understand what I'm talking about, when it comes to things all about my second life!

Hey Skylar (we've met once in world) I never knew the event was organised by SL volunteers, thanks for the info. I -probably like you - would love to attend with the main reason to meet other Slers I haven't met in the other world. Of course I would enjoy the more commercial 'Linden' aspect, but for me the main attraction would be the small hours in the morning among a group of friends trying to persuade Lauren to do an impromptu show :)

- Doran Carter xx

Bevan said...

Great post, well done and please blog more if you can!

Unknown said...

Nice post, Lauren. It's true, it could have been better with signage, but hey, no one went to make nice with the signs. We worked our tails off organizing it - entirely online. We had a musician (no names) complain about something (wanted more play time and exposure) and I simply said, "Look where you ARE! (referring to the gorgeous hotel and number of bloggers and photographers) You have NOTHING to complain about! ~ Anyway - you made me nearly spew my drink reading about the impending pregnancy tests in the months to come - hahahah! You're a riot. :) Keep blogging.

Anonymous said...

Great post hun! Yes it was a delight to be there, complaints aside. Just to be with soooo many talented, creative, and joyous people was faboo!
For me, I was there for the people so the shear joy of meeting people I have known (and more that I didn't already know) was reason enough to attend. There were many (mostly pleasant) surprises in discovering who was who and the carbons behind the pixels.
The hotel was gorgeous even though its not "convention friendly", and to be in such an electric city such as San Fran made the whole experience so much more enjoyable.
Kudos to the organizers for all the hard work. I used to organize conferences in Sedona, so I have a concept of what's involved.
Was it perfect?....no. Was it perfectly wonderful?...hell yeah!!!
Hugz N xxxses!!!! ~Star

Ham Rambler said...

This was the 4th SLCC I've been to, and it was just as much fun as all the others. The Live Music scene wasych better than before, and thank you to everyone who came along to the Blarney Stone on Tour event on Thursday after the Linden Laua. Looking forward to next years already