10:00 AM - I went to my final session of the conference just now. It was one I was really looking forward to, Developing Student Staff to Become Savvy Support Specialists. Unfortunately this wasn't really what I was expecting as it covered a lot of the stuff we are already doing or working towards at the Help Desk. It was nice to hear we are on the right track, I was just hoping for a little bit more from it.

On that note, I must check out soon and will not have Internet access until I get home. I have no idea if this was interesting to anyone else, however looking back on it, this is going to be quite useful for me as a reference to go back to when I get back to work, so now I sign off until Coralville.

12:10 PM Thursday - As you have probably guessed, I am back in Iowa and back at work.? The flights were a bit hectic as I had to run from one terminal to another at O'Hare to catch my flight to CR.? Luckily I made it back safe and sound and my luggage did to.? This wraps up the Nashville Travel Blog, I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

12:20 PM - Another keynote and two sessions again this morning. The keynote was very good, done by Marcus Buckingham. He was entertaining and actually provided some decent motivational managerial stuff without sounding cheezy, so it was something I might actually take to heart.

Unfortunately the next two sessions were not too good at all. The first was Metrics 101, which really was very basic. The conclusion I got out of it was that metrics are good and make sure that you analyse the numbers you get. The next one was supposed to be about moving on from password resets for customer self service, at least that is what I read. It ended up being about moving a company forward with user management, very similiar to what the Hawk ID system is. I got to hear a lot of stuff that the University already did or stuff that doesn't affect us at all. So with those behidn me, I have a hope that this afternoon will be better and that I find a more comfortable chair.

6:20 PM - I have just enjoyed a wonderful fish and chips dinner highlighted by some fresh made salt and vinegar chips with a curry dipping sauce.? Before dinner, I did have another session and keynote I attended.? The session was much better than the morning ones, a lot smaller audience and closer to home with stuff the Help Desk is doing.? It was about how to manage different entry points at the Help Desk, such as e-mail, phones, chat, etc, and how to do so in a changing business environment.? I also asked the presenter if there were any quick tips for rolling out a new service, such as chat, and how to get the word out.? He said that adding something to the phone tree really works in an environment where most people already know the phone number.? Pretty good stuff all around in the session.

The keynote was also very good, although I am noticing a trend with the keynote speakers.? They are all good and have different ideas, but when you go to the different sessions, they don't really agree with what we are being told there.? This leads me to think that all of this stuff needs to be thought about more before going forward with anything.? I know at a number of points throughout the conference I have thought of things that sound great for the Help Desk, but I have to temper my euthisiasm a bit and wait to get back and really talk and think things out.

Tomorrow I have a session then a keynote with checking out in between.? I found out Nashville airport does not have free Internet, so I hope to be able to write after the session and then when I am back home I may have time for a final update.

12:15 PM - Day two of the trip started with a sore neck and back due to an uncomfortable pillow. I bought some coffee and got to the first keynote. Half asleep and working through my coffee, I was greeted by a southern dressed woman on stage shouting "Howdy" into the microphone. She asked in a southern drawl how we were all doin and if we saw Reba last night (I did not). She then introduced a group of children who played fiddles. For the next 15 minutes of my life, I wanted to kill myself as I sat through both children fiddlers and grown men dancing to it. They then topped it off with a rendition of Rocky Top, which I refused to acknowledge and thought of the Iowa fight song to myself in my head.

We then had the keynote for the day called Dealing with Darwin. This really didn't have as much of an impact for me at the ITS Help Desk as we are not really in the business world. I did take some decent ideas of not trying to be great at every aspect of IT, but to start by focusing on one or two things to set an organization apart. Again, not really something we can use at the Help Desk, but interesting nonetheless.

My first breakout session was about ITIL. Tracy had asked in a recent meeting that I become more familiar with ITIL, and since I had no real idea what it was, the ITIL at Warp Speed session seemed to fit. I am really glad I went, the presenter was entertaining and did a good job of presenting the information. My dad said that at a conference, if one session is really good, it is probably worth it. I would say this first session was just that, it gave me basic information about ITIL and got me interested enough to learn more about it on my own.

The second breakout session was Developing an Effective Support Structure. This was not as interesting as it went over some stuff I am familiar with already, however there were some interesting formulas that could be used for staffing at the Help Desk. The presenter also went into some detail about how to best staff as smaller Help Desk, so that was also useful. The presentation wasn't great, but I think some of the tools that come out of it will be pretty good.

I am now on lunch for awhile, then have another breakout session and a featured speaker this afternoon. One thing I am learning about the conferences, there are some people who are here just to network. I notice they arn't paying attention through the presentations and are more concerned about finding people to talk to afterwards. I suppose this isn't bad, just not my cup of tea at this point in my career. More updates after this afternoon's sessions.

6:10 PM - I just got back from dinner and figured I should post before I forget some of the stuff from this afternoon. The only breakout session of the afternoon was Analyzing and Reporting Call Center Performance. I am pretty sure this couldn't be interesting if the presenter tried. With that, the presenter didn't try and spent most of her time talking down to us. The presentation had some decent information, but tough to implement in a smaller situation such as the Help Desk where we can't have 4 different analyists looking at data. The best part of the presentation was when the group in the next room over was making a racket, she had our group make some to distract them back. It was mildly amusing.

The final presentation was a featured speaker, the man who created HDI. He gave some vague "state of the industry" stuff that wasn't too surprising and really could have been found by anyone looking at information on the Net. The second part was supposed to be Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy guy, however his flight was cancelled out of Denver, so we got Marni Vos, a comedian who did a different breakout session, but who was very funny. I am actually probably happier that I got to see her than Ken Jennings.

That wrapped up the conference stuff for today. I did figure out how to get some of the pictures off of my PDA, so I am going to work on posting them tonight. I will add a link then. One last note, I am glad that I got registered last night because I didn't have to carry the bright green backpacks they handed out with me all day like most of the folks did today, so that was a bonus.

8:45 PM - I have posted pictures of the resort and a couple from my flight in a new set on Flickr.? I should note that the quality of the pics arn't great, but they should give you a feel of what the resort is like.

I have decided to keep a running log of my trip to the HDI conference in Nashville. I am planning to do a post for each day of the trip and then updating the post throughout the day, so check back occasionally throughout the next few days for updates galore.

1:00 PM - I am off to an ominious start, my flight to Chicago has been delayed. I do have an hour wiggle room at O'Hare for the flight to Nashville, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Luckily the resort I am staying at in Nashville does run a shuttle from the airport until fairly late at night, just in case of any problems with delays. However after my last experience flying to Florida, I don't have the best feeling right now. On the plus side, I do have free wireless here in Cedar Rapids so I can keep myself busy for now. If I have time and access in Chicago, I will post from there, if not the next update will be from Nashville and the Gaylord Opryland Resort.

1:20 PM - The plane arrived and the flight is moved back to On Time status, so I have a better feeling about catching my flight at O'Hare. Also, on a basketball note, good work for Bradley and the MVC getting two teams in the Sweet 16. Take that Billy Packer!

6:30 PM - I have arrived in Nashville and am settled into the hotel room. No difficulties were run into, including no lost luggage, no problems with the hotel reservations and no problems finding the room. I was assured by the guy driving the shuttle that the last one would prove to be a problem, however the map was much more useful than he led on. The room is very nice and it has a view of the giant attrium area here. I wasn't able to bring my camera, however I do have my cell phone that might be able to take some decent pictures. I will experiment with that after dinner.

7:30 PM - I scouted out the resort, it is as big as the map makes it out to be. I was able to find the food court and get a pork sandwich from Corky's BBQ. I figured I would wait until tomorrow to check out one of the other resturants here in the complex. I was also lucky that they were still doing registration for the conference tonight when I happen to be walking by. This will save me time tomorrow checking in and was the last real big thing I had to do before actually attending the conference. Time to figure out which sessions I want to go to and figure out where I need to be when. Next update will be some time tomorrow.