Exhausted but happily so
Washington, Chicago, Reuniafest, Toronto, Springsteen, ONA, panel, awards, Washington. I know I made moves on my fantasy football team mid-week, but I have to look at the roster again to figure out what I did. It's been a long, long week.
Picking up where we left off… ONA was a lot of fun. Good times were had with the USAT folks, and the crowd brought the same feeling. I met busloads of interesting people (pics) who were doing all kinds of cool stuff, all learning or in love with ideas and innovation, that the week never felt like networking. It didn't matter if you had a shy streak like someone we know. You could fall over and hit a conversation you wanted to keep going for an hour. Met really cool people from places like WPNI, the AP, MSNBC, NPR, Gannett, and a bunch of smaller sites that are doing big innovation. Caught up with many former coworkers and bosses too, almost all shifting jobs or locations in the last year.
I was all kind of nervous before my panel on Friday, but it seemed to turn out okay. Lots of questions, and the hour passed quickly. The questions were still rolling as time ran out, and that was a good sign. The day got even better in the evening when USAT took home the general excellence award for large sites (also, picture 18) against amazing competition, a big win for our 24/7 journalists and the relaunch team of editors, designers and technologists.
The night then ended around 1 this morning, and sleep ended at 6. A few weird international departure procedures made things interesting at the airport, but everyone made it out of the country.
