Tech Trek 2023

It’s Friday and I’m back from Ontario, having survived another Tech Trek. This was the first one since 2019, with the 2020 to 2022 editions being virtual due to the pandemic. After a four-year absence, to say that this was highly anticipated would be an understatement. There was a huge buzz at work that really dominated a lot of conversations in the weeks leading up to it. The good news is that the organizing committee made some adjustments that showed careful thought, even though there were still some problems.

The travel to and from the Nottawasaga Resort in Alliston Ontario went about as well as could be expected. The trip there on Westjet was delayed a bit, but no worries about the threatened pilot strike that was averted. The biggest pain (literally) was the flight home. I checked in late for my full flight, and all that was left was middle seats. The experience was just as bad as I anticipated. I was very happy to arrive at the Calgary Airport. Tammy dropped me off on Monday morning and she and the kids made the trip to pick me up after 10:00 on Thursday night. 💕

The event itself started at dinnertime on Monday and went to 3:00 in the afternoon on Thursday. There were presentations by management and the organizing committee, technical presentations, lightning talks and lots of activities and social events. The days were long, with breakfast opening at 7:00 and socialization stretching into the early mornings for some. John Osborne and I were responsible for a lightning talk that was well-received, and Julie and I were the key organizers for a meeting between the Solution Architects and Strategic Advisors. Other than that, I was there to take it in and take part.

• The weather was 29-30 degrees with humidity outside, and somewhere around freezing with the air conditioning inside. It was difficult to find a happy medium. It was also difficult to go for morning walks without getting too sweaty. I did try, and found a bunny and a squirrel on one walk.

• The first night’s activities included playing in the arcade (much updated video games since 2019) and a great ping pong game with Sumit. That night turned out to be the night where I had the most to drink, for some reason. The remaining two nights I was disgustingly well-behaved.
• I did not sign up for golf this year, which gave me some downtime on Tuesday afternoon. That was welcome. Tuesday night was “games night” and Mark Norbury brought “Star Wars: Outer Rim”. He contacted me ahead of time to let me know so we could play. It turned out to be in demand: I ended up co-playing with Ray, a trainer, who really wanted to play but the game was for up to four players.

• There was a team-building exercise on Tuesday: an egg-drop competition. My team was Jenny and Dave, and we did well, surviving a couple of rounds. The end came as Craig (the dropper) started “cutting away” parts of the contraptions. I was a bit pissed off that he completely removed our “parachute”. Gee whiz: who would have guessed the egg would break without a parachute?

• Tuesday night I got to play a bit of guitar with Dave Harwood, Jon Cormier (my roommate) and Debbie Burns. It wasn’t long enough because I turned in early, thinking that my lightning talk was in the morning on Wednesday. It turned out it was in the afternoon. Oh well.
• Wednesday night was ball hockey, and it was a fantastic game. The random team selection seemed to put the older, fatter people on one team and the young, fit guys on the other. Nevertheless, it was a close game that ended in a 5-5 tie.
• Karaoke was later on Wednesday and I signed up (you know I did without me saying, right) and I successfully sang I’m not the only one by Sam Smith. Later in the evening I also managed Promised Land by Elvis, but in retrospect that was not as good: not a lot of people knew the song. Note to self: it’s about the crowd, not the singer. Sam Smith was a much better choice.
• It was thanks to the hockey and karaoke that I forgot to check in to my flight until three hours late on Wednesday night. 😩
• The food was not memorable. Not that I’m one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it was uniformly less good than one might expect. Yet another reason to look forward to going home, I guess.

There were more pictures taken by others but I don’t have them yet. I will add them when I get them. Until then, here’s the tyrannosaur who was cheering in the soccer and hockey games.