TLG 2008: Greenville!

Welcome to the 2008 Transforming Local Government conference, hosted by the City of Greenville. This week-long conference is for 500 city and local leaders, to gather and discuss new ideas and success stories for their towns. Vendors are also here displaying their wares and services. Since the city is hosting this year's event, Greenville management asked us to be here to run some Internet cafes and supply equipment and support for the 7 conference rooms. My job was to float around and setup, tear down the conference areas, and to ensure that the meetings were started smoothly and were not interrupted by PC issues. We all know how computers are...and IF it can go wrong, it probably will. The event was hosted at the Carolina First Center, which is like Peoria's civic center exhibition halls. Here is the beautiful ice sculpture displayed in the main dining hall:

The lower lobby entrance.

Here's a view of the main lobby.

Winding staircase!

The CFC was undergoing major renovations this year. They were cutting it close, but most of the interior work was finished for the conference. Here's a picture from a few days before:

Registration Area:

Part of ATS's role was to setup Internet cafes for those who want to check their mail on the Internets.

Our Internet cafes were called The Port. Both of them. I don't get the name, but someone at corporate thought (incorrectly) that it was good. So good, that they printed it on bunch of napkins, too.

Here's one of the conference rooms that I helped setup and support.

ATS had a booth setup to advertise our itWatch product. My old supervisor, Jeff Clendenin, was there manning the sales booth, and he even introduced us during the ATS sponsored breakfast this morning. (Go Us!)

The food here was phenomonal. Lots and lots of fancy dishes and buffets and it was 99% delicious, except for my roast beef, which was probably not even cooked. Here's some lasagna, chicken, orzo, and penne.

Caviar! I didn't try it, though I probably should have.

I had plenty of downtime between the meetings to check my mail and to make blog posts. I carried a radio and was ready to respond at any moment! 10-4, good buddy!
The entire event went very smoothly. It was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace for us field techs. It was also nice to represent ATS values and "sell" our service to lots of different governments who someday will need computer help. And you know they will.