I got to attend LavaCon for the first time this year - it was great! I got to chat with a lot of buddies whom I rarely see, and I got to meet a few new people as well. This year, Lavacon was co-sponsored by the New Orleans chapter of the Project Management Institute, so many of the sessions talked about management of one kind or another. One of the keynotes was a U.S. Army Colonel who works with the New Orleans Hurricane Protection Office - that’s one big project! He was an extraordinary speaker, and had lots of real hands-on experiences.

On the more strictly tech comm side, I got to sit in on an advanced DITA workshop by Robert Anderson that really made me concentrate - the stuff he’s doing is right at the very edge of my understanding. It’s very cool to learn new things, and I felt lucky that he was there to share his knowledge.

Andrea Ames gave a luncheon speech - she is ALWAYS dynamic and fun to watch - and I attended several other presentations that were absolutely top-notch.

On a more personal note, now that I’m going to be chair of the IEEE/PCS Hawaii conference, I found that I’m looking at things differently now - like the way the registration ran, and how the exhibition area was set up, and program guide layout, etc. For example, I really like that the program booklet had the program-at-a-glance on the back cover. I might just “borrow” that idea.

I only wish I could have stayed longer.