HOW

The HOW Conference in Atlanta was amazing. I don't even know where to start. I met so many fun people, and learned so much in all my sessions... how do i even begin to write a blog about it without it becoming a 2000 word mess of stories and experiences?

The Conference

The speakers and conference as a whole were great. I got so many great ideas on how to keep the creativity going, tips on how to deal with clients, exercises to keep you fresh and much more. I took one session about drawing, and i decided to make it a habit to do at least one drawing a day. I might start a blog or flickr account to keep record of them (i am a nerd after all), but i haven't decided yet.

Congrats to the HOW staff for putting on a great conference. I've worked plenty of large events before, and i know what kind of work goes into a show like this.

The People

I've met so many kick ass people in the past few days. I can't think of a single person that i met that wasn't happy to stand around and shoot the shit. I think the experiences i had with the people i met were even better than the conference itself. off the top of my head i'd like to thank Sonya, John, Quyen and Trent from Southwest Airlines, Kelly from Richmond, Rebecca and Carmen from Ohio, Cassandra from Oregon, Luther and Hailey from Atlanta and the hundreds of other people that i met. I can only remember so many people from the blur of events this past week. Of course i gotta thank my co-workers Sean and Dana for making this a great trip.

Atlanta

I really wasn't expecting much from Atlanta, but it was really a cool place. It was a lot like Dallas, but seemed like it had more culture. Dallas has some culture, but its overrun with superficial crap. On tuesday we went to the Aquarium for the "Descenders Ball". it was a very nice aquarium equipped with the biggest sea life exhibit in the world. After they kicked us out of there we all took cabs over to the Star Bar in Little 5 Points for some fun. It was very interesting to see a club full of such a big mix of people. there was the bartender with tattoos and a foot long beard, there were black kids mingling and dancing, there were hipsters, rollers, movers and shakers. Dallas is much more segregated than that. everyone was very friendly, and one local girl grabbed me as i was walking by, wrapped her arms around me and started talking in my ear about how life is too short to drink cheap beer ($2 pabst baby!)... great night.

Before heading to the airport on wednesday we went to the Coca-Cola museum. we had planned to tour the CNN center, but i guess we changed our mind. It was a pretty neat place. I liked the art and architecture/design of the building more than most of the contents itself. oh! i almost forgot... the coke museum sends web pages to your phone. its kinda creepy. i was standing by the entrance of the Aquarium taking the picture you see here, and as soon as i took the pict i was sent info about the museum!