Another Miami Weekend

Just like last year, my company held its annual conference in Miami. This year it was at The Fontainbleau - a hotel/resort that held performances by Sinatra and Elvis, had been the set of famous scenes from Goldfinger and Scarface, and continued to be an exclusive, posh and overwhelmingly over the top hotel.  It was a nightmare to get into Miami after a fire at the airport.  My original flight got canceled and I had to get rerouted through Ft. Lauderdale.  I had planned a little beach time before the conference kicked off but the 7 hour delay squashed that.  The only bright side was that the delay allowed me to randomly meet Lou Ferrigno at LAX!

I was lucky enough to be nominated for an award this year which allowed me to bring a date. If you read this you know why that might be funny at this point in my life, so I was torn. Bring a friend or bring no one? I decided to take my friend Kristi since she came with me to a company event in 2009. She just had a birthday so I thought it would be a nice present to get her a ticket.

Most of the weekend was filled with networking, reuniting with colleagues from past projects and catching up on the latest and greatest technological developments with the company.  Some people value the classes the most, but I make no secret of the fact that I connect with the senior consultants and project leads.  I'm going to need another project whenever I roll off of this one and I'd like for them to know me.  It can't hurt!  We got to sneak off to the beach a few times, but I can't complain too much since there's another one right outside my Newport Beach pad.

Pic with Jeff and Linda from my current project team

Our Saturday night banquet and awards ceremony was 60's themed so I rented a tux with a white jacket and got some cheap black framed glasses.  I ended up winning the 'Young Gun' along with a few other younger people in the company.  I've been around for 3 years and am not exactly 'young,' but I'll take it.

The hotel had a convenient club and bar in the lobby.  The club cost $200-300 because of the Ultra Music Festival events - we didn't even try to get in.  The lobby bar was cool so we never left the property throughout the weekend.  There were celebrity sightings by seemingly everyone but me - McLovin from Superbad, Tommy Lee and Jaime Foxx were all at the hotel at some point.