So far..

.. the conference has been.. interesting. Worth it, too.

As we were all sitting down with our cocktails and beer to hear the introductions and keynote this evening, we were told that the city was under a tornado watch and that if the hotel staff came in and said so, we would all have to file out of the room we were in into the hallway to the right. Sure enough about three minutes later, we were all shuffled into the hallway (and the adjoining inner conference room that another group had apparently left a little bit earlier.. where we stole their left over cheese and crackers and melon and munched and mingled until they called us all back into our room).

This is a small conference - only about 200 total heads and most of them are DBAs or otherwise tech folks. But mingling tonight, I found kindred IR folks - though admittedly much more techy-IR than me. These are folks who are responsible for developing/implementing/maintaining their IR offices' data warehouses. It was reassuring and enlightening and encouraging to talk to them. We're not as bass-ackward as I fear sometimes and we have a lot more support than many others - namely, I have faculty support from two academic departments, which appeared cause at least one of my counterparts from Maryland to nearly drool in his drink.

All in all, this bodes well.