RE: COMMON - the week's over...

I won't argue Pepsi vs. Coke, but will argue Diet Pepsi vs. Diet Coke! Seriously, at least it was available. Not so much the case finding a Diet Pepsi in a Coke aligned resort!

Room rates and fees are getting harder to negotiate - hopefully one of the positive effect of the downturn will be resorts more willing to negotiate. I did notice that in Vegas the $12.99 Internet fee was also in effect - perhaps a deterrent to sitting on the room instead of at the tables!

I am very hopeful the brand new Hilton Orlando will meet all the attendees' needs. See you there!

-----Original Message-----

From: Don <dr2@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: May 6, 2009 12:53 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion' <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: COMMON - the week's over...

Jeff,

If you want to drink terpentine (AKA Pepsi) you can lodge your butt at any
marirott - not only are they over priced, under delivered but their corpo
policy is to use terpentine to serve their guests. Long standing feud there
between marirott and Coke that goes back several years...and yes, I tend to
avoid marirott's for several reasons, including those stated.

Hopefully this new property in Orlando won't have $13/day internet fees, on
top of resort fees...etc.... I had a bit of sticker shock when I checked
out of Reno, but then, this was the first (and will be last) time I used a
conference hotel in MANY years. Frankly, I paid probably 2-3X what I should
have for a normal stay in Reno. Fortunately both COMMON and the IBM Conf's
are in Orlando for the next conferences so I'll not only drive but save
bucks on lodging.

You were right on the flights. If there is one single glaring huge reason
not to go back to Reno for any reason, it's logistics. And you shouldn't
have that problem with Orlando.

You could find Coke on the property. It was available at the little deli
down from Registration and at the ice cream store.

It was nice to have a casino hotel that I didn't have to trudge through the
whole casino to get to my meetings rooms like I did at the Hilton in Vegas
for CES... The location of sleeping quarters to meeting facilities was
really nice.

DR2



-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeffrey M. Carey
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 1:49 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: COMMON - the week's over...

I heard a lot of positive feedback. I know the flying situation was not
optimal. When we chose Reno, there were about 33% more airline seats coming
in I'm told - could not predict the airlines would cut back back when the
contracts were inked!

At least that should not be a problem with Orlando! There should also be
some good economical dining choices very nearby - not sure about without a
car or cab, but luckily car rental is fairly cheap there. I should be out
there in September, so I'll check the property out, as I believe it opens in
August.

And I for one was thrilled they were a Pepsi location! That is so rare
these days! I don't mind regular Coke, but my blood sugar does, and Coke
Zero is tolerable, but unavailable even at most Coke sellers! Easy access
to Diet Pepsi was a Godsend!

Of course getting home from the conference and a side trip to Vegas with the
wife was dampered by the surprise announcement that I was let go, so I have
a whole new challenge ahead!

Jeff Carey


-----Original Message-----

From: LÃo Lefebvre <leo@xxxxxx>
Sent: May 5, 2009 10:44 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: COMMON - the week's over...

"Leo, what's the latest on your appointment to being the LUG Chair?? "

Hi Don,

I'll be looking at (continue to look at) the LUG business!

Leo Lefebvre
President
Toronto Users Group for Power Systems
Visit our home page at [1]http://www.tug.ca
Ph: (416) 606-5960 --- [2]leo@xxxxxx

Don wrote:

COMMON - epilog



Well, the week is over.



The Grand Sierra is probably the closest venue to the airport that I've

ever

been to at a COMMON. The prices, well, they could have been a lot better.
This is the first COMMON that I've actually stayed on property for the
conference and I feel I should be calling Obama for a stimulus
package.actually, I think I've stimulated the Reno economy A LOT and now I
need some refunding. The hotel rooms, while very nice, weren't cheap and
internet at $13/day was just a rip off. It was nice though to have all

the

rooms in close proximity and to not have to drag through a casino to go to
where I wanted to go. But it wasn't anywhere near the offering and

comfort

of places like the 3-b/r suite I get in Orlando for $500/wk that I'll be
staying at in Sept for the iseries tech conf.



Expo in terms of area hit me as smaller. Very few of the larger booths

and

at last count less than 80 vendors there. Some didn't show up and I've

yet

to work the phones to find out why.



IBM Systems magazine party was great..so was the Linova event! Met some
interesting people at both, including some real interesting partiers from
Houston.



Sessions were good - but since I was doing the conference on a Table PC

and

needed the .pdf's for the presentations found that many missing
presentations from the web was a real annoyance. Even had to roust a few
speakers to post their handouts or just email them directly. Wasted time
in one session downloading the handout from the speakers website - great
speaker and presentation - just wish'd their handout had been available
before hand.



Enjoyed Scott's youtube's! Way to go dude!



LUG noon meeting on Wednesday was good. Have started adding AIX user

group

officials and liasons to the interlug.



Congrads to Pete, Trevor and Hoss for election - be careful what you ask

for

- you may get it.:-)



Leo, what's the latest on your appointment to being the LUG Chair??



After wasting a day each way in travel and dealing with an airline with

next

to no customer service (Delta), I'm giving serious consideration to
attending those conferences I can either get fairly direct flights to or
preferably drive.



Hard to find Coke products there.but they could be found in the basement

if

you knew where.I hate hotels that only want to serve pepsi products!



Ran into a lot of folks that want me to still write product reviews -

both

vendors and users. Look for this to fire up shortly. Announcement on M-L
and MMU when it happens.:-)



DR2









References

Visible links
1. http://www.tug.ca/
2. mailto:leo@xxxxxx
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