Act 30: A Work Conference

A couple of weeks ago, I got the opportunity to go to a conference for work.  It was pretty exciting because I haven't attended one before, but somewhat less so considering the circumstances.  I was a last minute replacement for a coworker who had a heart attack a few days before the conference started.  Luckily, he's doing well now.

The conference was put on by the Midwest SAS Users Group.  SAS is the primary programming language I use at work right now.  It's pretty versatile and easy to learn; I've been using it for 2.5 years.  The conference went from Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon and was held at the Hilton in Milwaukee, WI.  I went with my friend/coworker Aimee and overall it was a very worthwhile.  Lots of good sessions on Monday and Tuesday where we learned a lot and took 1.5 small pads of paper worth of notes.  The food was good and all meals were provided and the hotel was nice.

But the best part by far was the Monday night dinner event held at the Harley-Davidson museum.  It was a blast!  We had about an hour to go through the museum and see all the old bike styles.  There was a lot of Evel Knievel memorabilia too.  I knew all about the motorcycle daredevil stuff, but I didn't realize he was so ingrained in Harley history.  He was all over the place in there.

The coolest thing in the museum was touch screens that allow you to build your own motorcycle.  You big one of 8 or so models to start with and then you can change basically everything: fenders, gas tank, handlebars, forks, seats, paint color, designs, tires, etc.  It was a blast!  Aimee and I both made pretty sweet bikes.  They show your bike up on the big TV screens on the wall in the museum, email you a picture, and for $0.53 you can get your custom bike printed on a sticker.  Of course I got the sticker... why wouldn't I?  My bike was awesome.  I'm planning to put the sticker on magnet and display it proudly on my fridge!