#TAM2013 Day -1 Review by the PseudoAstronomer

Wednesday, the day before workshops and the welcome reception.

(Note: Last year I did a massive TAM 2012 review. I’m breaking it up into days this year.)

Getting There

I had a 9:30ish AM flight, meaning I had to leave my place around 6:30, meaning I got very little sleep. Not a good way to start things off.

I had called the South Point hotel to get a reservation for the 11AM shuttle. The next shuttle wouldn’t come until 12:30; the shuttles are at Terminal 1, and you cannot walk to it. My flight got into Terminal 3 at 10:20, and Frontier decided not to tell us that the baggage carousel was not working and didn’t switch to another one. Perhaps needless to say, I missed the shuttle.

Fortunately, I met two other TAMers on the interterminal shuttle, and we split cab fare to the hotel. The total was around $28. Check in went fine, and I got a late lunch in the hotel at the buffet (I didn’t get to try it last year). Wasn’t bad.

Afternoon

I really should have slept, but I didn’t. Checkin for TAM was going to be at 1PM, but due to computer issues, it started at 3PM. I spent time talking with the friendly atheists from the Richard Dawkins Foundation (I know them reasonably well since they’re from Colorado Springs and they and us (the Denver folks) go to similar events like Skepticamp).

They also set up around 4:30 to interview me (they interviewed around two dozen presenters and will be putting out videos later — I’ll link when I know where they are, or where mine is). The interview was to last ~15 min and be boiled down to ~5 min, but since I was the first and we did many takes, I was there for about an hour. All good. And then re-did on Sunday (that’ll be on the Day +3 post).

I then napped.

Evening

I had a cheap-o dinner at Steak ‘n Shake inside the casino. I took my milkshake to the venerable Del Mar lounge to talk with other TAM folks and pimp my workshop that would be starting in about 11 hours. I met two fans of my podcast (yay!) and convinced a few people to come to the workshop.

When the rest of the Colorado folks arrived around 10:30ish, Bryan and I sat down to go over the presentation for the workshop.

And then there was bed.

Overall

Not a bad start. Well, bad start with transportation, but once I got there, I had a good time and met new people (my second-main goal this year was to be more social).

I honestly recommend that if you’re going to TAM, you get there on Wednesday. It’s so much less pressure to go to stuff, you just get to ease into Vegas (something this country boy needs), and there are fewer people there so you can actually hear yourself talking to others.

And if you happen to be doing a workshop the next morning at 8AM, you can try to talk people into going.

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