Des Moines/Gnomedex Wash-Up
My hotel room in Des Moines gave me a beautiful view of the Iowa state capitol building. It looks for all the world like an eastern European palace; the large central dome is gilt in 23-caret gold, and there are four smaller copper domes as well. When was built, the cost of gilding the dome was $3,500; the most recent gilding cost $400,000! It was an interesting view across the Des Moines River. Des Moines is the insurance capital of the United States; you can't walk down the street without tripping over an actuary--OK, that's not entirely true; actuaries are never found on the street. But it is a fact that downtown Des Moines is just one insurance company after another. There is a very small entertainment district which has a pretty decent Cajun restaurant, Buzzard Billy's--at least it's decent by my standard, which is how good their red beans and rice and hush puppies are.

Gnomedex was a worthwhile experience but unfortunately I had far too many things weighing down my thoughts to do the schmoozing I should have been doing. I'll plan it differently next year and some of the issues I have should be resolved. It's a excellent conference with solid content, and Chris really does have a knack for attracting good talent to speak and good attendees to keep it lively and interesting. There could be a few more "breakout" sessions, and I had some other ideas but I should have written them down on my PDA whan I thought of them. Chris asked us all to email Gretchen with any thoughts or ideas for next year and I will wrack my brain to come up with some. BTW, Gretchen was a great hostess and really went out of her way to make folks feel welcome and a part of things. All in all, Gnomedex == good.