MG User Con Denver, CO (Buisness Trip)

We didn't have a lot of free time to play during this trip, but it was still a good time. I was in Denver for the MG User Conference. Three days of learning about new enhancements in the MG products and how to better use their products that we have now. It was also a good chance to network with other MG users and learn from their experiences as well. We came home with some good info. this was by far one of the better MG Conferences that I have attended.

Our fight was to leave at 7am, this meant I had to get up at 3:30am (I'm not a morning person). Inevitably I was running late in order to arrive the recommended two hours early at the airport. This didn't make much difference, as I was through security in 20 minutes and then found out our fight was delayed an hour.

We arrived with just enough time to check in and grab a quick lunch before our first sessions started. That night after the sessions got out we walked down to 16th St Mall to look for some dinner. The 16th St Mall is about 1 mile stretch closed to car traffic. Pedestrians, the shuttle bus and horse drawn carriages is the only traffic on 16th st. After dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, the ladies thought a ride on one of the horse drawn carriages would be fun. So they flagged one down and we took it for a quick tour around down town Denver and then back to the hotel.

Like I said I did not have much time to go explore the city or any where else during this trip. But I did manage to squeeze in a quick walk down to the state capital and passed the Denver Mint and around the Art Museum between a couple of sessions.

Here is a map of where I walked. You can click, pan, and zoom on the points for more info.

View Larger Map

Tuesday was another full day of workshops and sessions, but I had about an hour of of time to kill mid morning. So I thought I would see if I could walk down to the Colorado State Capital and the Denver Mint before my next session. The blue line you see on the map above was my walk.


Colorado State Capital Building


Opposite the Capital is the Denver City and County Building


Between the two was the "Greek Theater"


Beyond the "Greek Theater" was the Denver Art Museum (funky looking building)

I also walked around the Denver Mint but failed to get any pictures for two reasons. One, it wasn't as impressive or cool as I thought it might be, and second they were doing construction on the front of the building and it was covered in scaffolding.

Latter that evening most of the 200+ attendees of the MG User Con went to the Colorado Rockies Baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks (Diamondbacks won 4-2). We where sitting along the first base line. There where two foul balls were caught within 10 seats of me, that was pretty cool (would have been even cooler if I caught one!). The weather during the game got a little crazy. It was about 75F at the game, about the 5th inning a small thunder storm blew in lighting up the sky with webs of lightning. It was pretty cool to see. Then we began to feel a few rain drops, nothing that a true Oregonian couldn't deal with. As the drops continued to fall the stands began to empty until it was just the die hard fans and a couple of us Oregonians. Next the rain started coming down as LARGE slushy snow drops (keep in mind it was still about 75F). I still held strong as the game didn't get called due to the weather, and it soon cleared up and we were dry again a half hour later any way.


Before the rain and snow


During the rain and snow


After the crazy thunder storm. Notice how the stands cleared out.


Look at the fans hiding under their wussy umbrellas.

Wednesday was all work and no play, workshops and sessions all day and then make a dash for the airport. It was 11:30 pm when I finally got home.

All in all it was a good trip. I got some good info, a few ideas for the future, and got to ask people form other companies how the system was working for them. I was also fun getting a chance to visit a new city and state.