Euro Road Trip Pt 7 - IT Forum Party

Normally I would not post about the party aspects of a conference to try and maintain the facade that I have been working my a** off, however last nights attendee party was so impressive that its worth blogging about, in particular the concert aspect.

I've been lucky enough over the years at various conferences to see among others Blonde, Smashmouth, Sugar Ray, Jessica Simpson (missed Bryan Adams, damn) and most are pretty good but for sure they do quickie versions of their set, plus I am getting old and sometimes don't know the band or the music. Last night the Operations Manager 2005 folks sponsored the party(they also sponsored the Jessica Simpson party in the San Diego zoo at Tech Ed US this year), hosting the usual "bad" food(hot dogs, pizza, potato wedges, ...), Karaoke, Movies, XBox Games etc, but the highlight of the evening for me was the concert by the SAS Band.

This was without a doubt the best conference concert I have been to. The band is made up of different people each time but last night we had Midge Ure(Thin Lizzy, Ultravox and Band Aid), Chris Thompson(Manfred Mann), Graham Gouldman(10cc), Roger Taylor(Queen), Madeline Bell(top session singer and solo artist) and Spike Edney(great session and backup guitar, keyboard, vocals guy). They did >2 hrs with each person doing a couple of their own numbers then coming back later and doing some more, at the end they all joined together and played some Queen, Thin Lizzy and other tracks. It was great music, well played with a great flow and a venue that worked out really well.

Naturally this being a somewhat Geek Central event when the various acts were playing there was a lot of camera phone/video shots being taken.Including me, however when I tried watching the video this morning it really doesn't convey the event in any shape or form :-)

Kudos to the MOM team for the party and the SAS Band for a great show.