Well I’m here. Lots of people are coming into town. The streets are crawling with Episcopalians, though crawling is probably not the right word…
I spent the night in Pittsburgh with my sister and got up this morning to attend church at Trinity Cathedral in Pittsburgh. I went there because I have a number of connections with that place, having served on the Cathedral Chapter back when George Werner was the Dean and also having interred our youngest daughter in the columbium there. Bishop Duncan was the celebrant, which I suppose I should have expected that since it is Trinity Sunday. He and I had a brief visit following the service, but I have to admit I was much more keen on spending time at my daughter’s grave and excused myself rather quickly.
I drove directly from Trinity Cathedral to Columbus and got in here at about 3:00 PM. I’m staying in a hotel about 5 blocks from the meeting site. Nice place even though it is a little far.
I’ve managed to get in and get registered. My overwhelming impression so far is about how much things look like they did in Philadelphia and in Minneapolis. We’ve got the same layout in the House of Deputies, the same sorts of booths in the exhibit hall and much of the same folks here as were at the other conventions.
The one big surprise is that the Convention Center seems to be suppressing wireless access inside the building. People who were planning on setting up wireless access points in the exhibit hall are telling me that it looks like that’s not going to be possible. Which means it’s going to be a little bit more challenging to report on what’s happening than I expected, but I’m sure we’ll find a way. Grin.
Committee 19 – the committee on communications – begins its work at 8:00 AM in the morning tomorrow. I’m turning in early tonight in preparation.
Hi Nick, what’s the deal with the lack of wireless access points in the Exhibit Hall? Is this a problem with the facility itself and/or are General Convention officials limiting the use of wireless computers, Blackberry e-mail devices, etc. Thanks for the info.
Hi Jim –
It’s a “feature” of the convention facility. They seem to be suppressing the wireless 802.1 signals so that you can’t simply set up a router to provide free internet access. They charge each work station in the exhibit hall for each LAN hookup.
Which probably makes sense during trade shows, but it’s a little frustrating for us.
Cellphones and blackberry’s still do work. (Which is what I’ve been using to see what’s happening on the web.)