This was my first show (2nd year in the biz as a webmaster) and I went to handle some biz and even more so for the tax writeoff.
I copped a corner suite running 4 bills a night and made a vacation of it with my girl. I have gotta say the suite was lovely... not a single complaint there. It turned into the place to meet for me & all my partners due to it's spaciousness and lovely balcony. Two thumbs up for corner suites at the Diplomat.
I was on the 17th floor, directly above the pool, so I used a wireless connection through one of the cabanas (internext-cabana) that was open the whole time (even in the days after the convention). No problem with it at all. Even had a better wi-fi connection than cellular (tmobile was dead throughout the building for me). The first day I was there, I saw an available connection simply named "internext" .. but it was gone within hours of my arrival.
I didn't even really plan on doing any biz on the exhibition floor, but was hoping to meet my best performing sponsors, who ended up not being on the floor anyway. Did get to meet some guys in the biz, just by wandering around. Duke from facialabuse.com, Jason from vidsvidsvids.com & Jay from jays-xxx-links.com were all great guys to finally meet. Cheers to linking with other webmasters!
If I had it to do over, I would not attend a single one of offsite parties. Those were a total waste of time. I would stay at the convention non-stop. There was alot of networking I missed out on cuz of partying. And the free alcohol was alot more accessible within the westin!
I do have to agree with a previous poster about the bar at the pool. I bought there one day and lord have mercy that shit was overpriced as a mufucker! Quote from the bartender giving me my change "Tips included" ... what the fuck I didn't want to spend damn near $30 on 2 drinks!?
All the alcohol from that bar was watered down.. I had like 5 red bull vodkas and didn't catch a buzz.
I didn't even realize there was any breakfast, I missed every seminar, hit the floor for maybe 5 minutes... and have to say I can't wait to do it again!
The Westin sure knew how to stick it to you good though... I swear me and my group paid $30 for water one night at dinner.
Diggz Hits Internext