Dan's Trip to Orlando

Written By: Dan

Earlier this week I went down to Orlando for the Gartner IT Symposium. It was held at the Swan and Dolphin Hotels. Good show, very informative - Nuspire may sponsor next year.

One of the highlights was an evening event at Epcot. Normally, being at Disney World by yourself isn’t a good time (it really is a small world after all). However, this time was an exception. Disney cleared out the park for the Gartner event. So the only people in all of Epcot were Gartner Attendees and Disney Employees. All the rides were open, and there was plenty of free food and beer. This made for a fun time. What made things better was all the IT nerds seemed to be more interested in the different buffets than the free rides. Because of this there were literally no lines at any of the rides. I could walk straight onto the ride. If I liked the ride I could stay on and go again. As I dashed from ride to ride I kept thinking “WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING! YOU DORKS! OPEN RIDES! YOU CAN FIND A BUFFET ANYWHERE!” This is another example of book smarts VS. what the hell are you thinking.

By the time I got back to the hotel I was exhausted. I spent 3 hours in a full blown sprint, running from ride to ride. The only thing that would slow me down was to grab a beer, which I would grab (and drink) like a marathon runner takes water during the race.
What an experience. I’m not sure “kid in a candy shop” relays my excitement. Maybe “immature young man in an empty theme park with beer” is a better expression to use.