Diggnation Live 08

Had an AMAZING time in London with Lisa. We got the train up to London, arrived at about 5. Then it was a case of hopping on the tube and DLR to our hotel which was right next door to the Excel Arena. The DLR wasn't running for the last two stops so we walked it with a short cut through some weird industrial area, almost getting lost but not quite! We had a pretty good idea which direction to walk in!

Anyway we found the hotel ok - it had a weird pod in the room for the en-suite bathroom. It was nice inside but very strange... here's a capture from the Ibis hotel virtual tour.



After a quick freshen up we headed for the Arena - got in there nice and early, and got our pass. There was nobody at the door of the hall cos we were so early so we went to grab a burger - but when we got back the queue was snaking all around the exhibition units!! As soon as they opened the doors to the hall google opened the free beer stand. We got ourselves a good seat before we got the 'Googlebeers'

Here's Revision3 CEO, Jay Louderback giving us a quick insight to the Googlebeers stand...



About 10 mins before the show I ran out there to grab some beers. I only took 4 - 2 for me and 2 for Lisa. I didn't take the piss like some people did. Some people were coming back into the hall with a laptop bag full of bottles and as many as they could carry in their arms. A bit cheeky if you ask me. But still, thanks Google. I almost feel obliged to upgrade my Gmail to a premium membership ... Almost... not quite!

So, yeah, it was cool. We made some new friends, had a laugh before Kevin and Alex came on stage. There were all kinds of people there from your stereotypical geeks with slick side-parting, glases and pens in the top pocket of their cheap shirts, to skater kids with piercings and long hair... and everything between. Some had their laptops with them, there was one dude playing Spore while we were waiting in the queue to be let in. Here's some more pics - starting with a short clip of all the people in the hall...









After the show there was an after party at the bar next door. It was sponsored by Digg and Facebook - I think the founder of Facebook was there but I didn't know what hee looked like. We had a few drinks, chatted to random people and got to meet Kevin and Alex as well as the guys behind the camera Glen and Prager. Kevin and Alex did a thing where they were giving out freebies to people who could answer the right questions.... this is where I use other peoples photos....



...and now a few from my photos...





The rest of the photos can bee seen in my flickr photoset.

All in all we had such a great time.