Continuing the story of my travel whoas…. at the end of the last episode, A Blogger on a Plane… For Way Too Long, I was driving to Madison, WI from the Milwaukee, WI airport after a long day and night of travel. It was about a 90 mile drive. I finally made it to the event at 3:30 pm or so. I had missed so much! I felt horrible coming in so late, but everyone was so nice and understanding. I was there for only a few minutes and I felt right at home.
As previously mentioned “The Future of the Digital Workplace” TDS Blogger Event was thrown by TDS. You may not know TDS by name. TDS stands for Telephone & Data Systems. They are the parent company of many companies that you have heard of such as US Cellular.
Of course talking telephones, digital, and technology is right up my alley, so when I arrived I joined right in on the discussion, although I kept thinking about what I had missed. And I was fed right away which was probably good. Me with no sleep and hungry is not a good combination. LOL!
The event was attended by some TDS employees, including the CEO himself, Dave Wittwer, some other associated guests, and six bloggers including myself. This event was a refreshing change for me, although it felt a tad strange. Why? This was the ONLY blogger event that I have attended where I did not know any of the other bloggers. It was very nice to meet some new people. The bloggers that attended were:
- Kris Cain from Little Tech Girl
- Thomas Clifford from Tommytrc.com
- Paul Gibler from ibmadison.com
- Catherine Morgan from A to B Transitions
- Don Stanley from 3rhinomedia.com
- Tom Snyder from Triveraguy.com
The talk was held at the headquarters of the John Roach Project. I loved the space. And the owner, John Roach, who is a friend of TDS was there to participate and mingle with us. He had some great stories about this life working with stars, doing production, and more.
Although I missed a fair amount of the talk, I arrived in time to catch the tour of the huge Data Center. And yes… I am a true nerd because I greatly enjoyed it. In my previous jobs I had experience in our “server room” which we then moved over to a much larger data center in our new building over one weekend. It was interesting to see a much larger version, and hear about all the time and thought that goes into the design to ensure that the facilities are secure and ready to stand up to almost any natural disaster or fire.
I was also able to attend the awesome dinner at L’etoile. And it is right across the street from the capital, so the view was incredible. The food was soooo good! And since I had basically been up for almost 2 days the bartender made me the strongest espresso that I had ever tasted so that I could stay awake for dinner. LOL!
That night I probably slept the best I have ever slept in my life. 🙂 The next morning I made the 175 mile, 3.5 hour drive home.
As a parting gift, since it was the theme of the discussion we each received a digital copy of the book The Digital Workplace, How Technology is Liberating Work by Paul Miller. And I was very pleasantly surprised to receive a Kindle Fire to house the book! We also received a Polycom CX100 Speakerphone for Office Communicator which I still need to try out.
The event certainly made me think about the way that I look at the digital age and telecom as it pertains to work, life, and the internet. I am very interested to read the book, and I am very happy to have met some new bloggers to check out. And I met some awesome new friends in the girls from Gossip Genie. They are housed here in Chicago and I look forward to getting to know them as well.
Disclosure: TDS provided a travel stipend, lodging, and food for the event. All opinions are my own.
Elizabeth Marsh
Hi Kris,
Sounded like a great day. Hope you enjoy Paul Miller’s book (I head up the research program at Digital Workplace Forum, which he’s CEO of). Would be interested to hear your comments (also for the ‘Reaction’ page on digitalworkplacebook.com).
Best wishes,
Elizabeth