#CONV15 – Convergence 2015 Atlanta – Day 1 – Continued

After the Opening Keynote and the Microsoft Dynamics GP general session, it was time for lunch.

I don’t have any facts and figures this year, but the logistics in feeding this many people must be amazing and I am very pleased that I work in the IT industry and not hospitality.

Below is a picture of the meals area. In the distance are some black partitions…. that is the halfway point with about the same area of tables on the other side.

The meals area (at least half of it)

After lunch, Mariano and I visited the Speaker Workroom where we caught up with our favourite speaker organisers, Ace Martin and Tracy Stenhjem. These guys are the driving force behind ensuring that the sessions at the conference have speakers to ready to deliver them.

 
Ace Martin and Tracy Stenhjem

We finalised the presentation deck for the customisation session we were doing tomorrow and Mariano prepared for his CS15G002-R1: Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015: Upgrading and deploying session.

The session was a great success with Mariano keeping everyone amused while they learned heaps of valuable information. No excuses now, everyone’s upgrades should run smoothly.

Mariano doing his stand up comedy routine before his session

The audience at Mariano’s session, including hecklers at the front

After the session we visited the Expo hall for the Expo Experience, Microsoft Solutions Experience and the Community Experience. It was impossible to get a photo of the entire Expo hall, but I did take a panorama shot of the middle section.

The Expo Hall (at least what I could capture at one time)

Mariano and I got separated, so I spent the next few hours wandering the Expo hall catching up with ISVs, partners and Microsofties that I knew.

 
David Musgrave with some of the Vicinity Manufacturing team: Jeremy, Randy & Kaitlyn

Ora Goldman from Mekorma and David Musgrave

Brian Roney, David Musgrave and Alice Newsam

Eventually, I caught up with Mariano again as I was chatting with Brian and Alice from the Microsoft Dynamics GP development team.

Then it was time for the Expo to close, so we headed over to the Omni Hotel’s Lobby bar to unwind for a bit. We finished the day with dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s downstairs from the Omni Hotel and then headed home to get some rest after a really long day.

David

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.