The keynote itself, shown in Figure A, had a "just right" audience size. There were about 80 people arranged around banquet tables throughout the ballroom. We also had a number of event sponsors on hand, like Google and the security firm Calyptix, who helped make the event possible.

FIGURE A


That's me, in the middle of the room, PowerPoint and all. Roll over picture for a larger image.

It was an absolute pleasure presenting in front of clueful IT people. Normally, when I speak or do interviews, I'm talking to relatively non-technical people and this group just got "it" from the minute I started my talk. This group, of course, understands what makes for a good IT practice and found themselves just as baffled as our readers by the White House's IT operation. In fact, when I showed some of the testimony by White House Chief Information Officer Theresa Payton, the entire room erupted in laughter.

After the speech, I had a chance to chat with ICCA members, as shown in Figure B. From left to right you can see ICCA member Gary, me, ICCA Executive Director Joyce Burkard, and Calyptix President Ben Yarbrough.

FIGURE B


From left to right, Gary, me, Joyce Burkard, and Ben Yarbrough. Roll over picture for a larger image.

I need to take a moment and give huge kudos to Joyce. I've worked with much larger organizations and spoken in front of much larger groups, but I don't think I've ever encountered an event organizer more on the ball or more genuinely friendly. Joyce was completely on mission in every email correspondence, sent out reminders, made sure all the arrangements were happening the way they were supposed to, and to borrow a cliche, kept the trains running on time perfectly. I was mightily impressed.

After the presentation, I got to speak with a number of ICCA members. You can see a bunch in Figure C.

FIGURE C


This was a nice group of ICCA members. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can see another group in Figure D. If you look closely, at the very far right of Figure D, you can see a partial profile of ICCA President Dave Nachman, who was also kind enough to set up the presentation computer and get everything working.

FIGURE D


Another pleasant group of ICCA members is shown in this shot. At the far right, you can see ICCA President Dave Nachman. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Overall, I had a great time on this trip and a lot of inner-circle IT recommenders got a very important briefing on what's going on in White House IT.

Finally, this was a very interesting, jam-packed trip for me. Between the time I got off the plane and had to speak, and after I met my speaking commitment to the ICCA, I had the opportunity to meet confidentially with some other very interesting D.C. denizens who were kind enough to take weekend time to visit with me at the conference hotel and discuss the White House situation. I can't tell you who they were, though. If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Heather Wardell received her first Palm handheld in 1997 (from a boss who couldn't get the hang of Graffiti) and has never looked back. She worked in banking as a systems analyst for four years, and then moved into elementary education, teaching computers at a private elementary school for four years. Heather is now a full-time women's fiction writer, and her first novel, "Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo" is available for free download through her Web site at http://www.heatherwardell.com.