I walk down from the conference hotel across the street to the conference center. As I am slowly lifted via the escalator up to the conference area, I see this line forming. The line must have been hundreds of people long and I have no idea how they would register all those people within 30 minutes. Lucky me, I am on the speaker list, so I bypassed the line, and just waited about 5 minutes to get my badge. Why is it taking so long to register people? My guess, it has to do with only having three people man the stations, requiring them to print out badges on label printers and then stick them onto a conference badge, and assemble the badge there. Also they do not have a line for A-K, L - N, etc... it is just one line for normal attendees and one line for press, speakers, exhibitors and staff. I hope it all works out, because there is now 4 minutes until launch off and the room is only 25% filled.
Just had a quick chat with Brett, he said a ton of people just registered on site, which didn't help the issue of running late. We probably won't start until 9:15 here, and push all the other sessions back. But Brett gave out the wireless access code to everyone, sponsored by Ask.com. So some people are now happy. Guy Kawasaki just snapped of a picture of me, as he scans the conference room with his camera.
Brett is up speaking at 9:05, welcoming people, saying the conference is almost double of what it was last year. He explains that he started WebmasterWorld in 1999, and started back with forums in 1984 or so. He thanked the sponsors. He said most parties are private, but go to your reps and ask them.
