An Inauspicious Start to JavaOne 2010

The start of my first JavaOne experience was a little rocky.  I used the mobile registration method to check-in to the conference via my Droid.  As part of the text messages exchanged during this registration process, I stated that I would pick up my badge at the Hilton instead of Moscone West because that is closer to the area where JavaOne is being held.  I received a confirmation via text that my badge would be ready at the Hilton when its conference registration opened at noon (the Moscone West registration opened several hours earlier).

When I went to the Hilton at about 12:15 pm today, I was relieved to see that the lines for those who did the Mobile Registration were significantly shorter than the general attendee registration lines.  There did seem to be a little confusion at times and different people provided slightly different directions, but it came to my turn fairly quickly to pick up my badge.  Unfortunately, they were out of the yellow lanyards for the press/blogger passes at this location.  It was recommended that I should go to Moscone West to pick up my badge.  I did walk down to Moscone West and did get my badge and materials without significant issues, but by the time that was all done, there was only five minutes left in the MySQL Sunday Opening Keynote that I had really wanted to see: MySQL Strategy: What's Next. Because there was no point to attending that presentation with five minutes left, I went and had lunch at the Westfield San Francisco Centre.

Although it was disappointing to miss the MySQL Sunday opening keynote, there were some positives in all of this.  First, I was able to walk by and see each of the main venues for JavaOne and Oracle OpenWorld.  It was helpful to have the signs on the sidewalk that pointed to Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne.  It was nice to get a feel for how the venues are located relative to each other.

A second positive was that all the people I talked to who were handling the registration process were very friendly.  Although there was some obvious confusion and different directions at times, it made it a lot easier to deal with when the people were friendly.  I was able to get my pass in time to attend MySQL Idiosyncrasies that Bite, which I will blog on in a future post.