The Vista General Availability Launch in NY

I had my first full show in New York City over the weekend. I’ve worked a couple one just the first or last day of a show but this one was mostly all the way through. The main idea of this show was to announce that Windows Vista was released to the public. Doing the show was a little crazy because I guess it started out as just a small thing and then just kept growing and growing. The only thing I got to do other than work was the first night I got in.

I arrived at the hotel around 6:30 or 7 at night and one of my PCV friends that lives in NY came in to see me. We got to go out and see a little of Times Square then we went down to 18th and had a drink at one of if not the oldest pub in the city. It was pretty neat. Nice, old and torn up a bit. Super high ceiling and a dumb waiter going up to the kitchen. Since I had to wake early the next day we took a cab back to my hotel and called it a night. It was really great to see an RPCV friend 🙂 .

The Vista Launch was pretty standard as far as new OS releases for Microsoft go. Not that I’ve ever been to one before but it was pretty crazy and over the top. I hear that all the billboards in Times Square were rented out for the moment when Vista launched. I’m not sure for how long but that’s still a ton of ad space. The band Angels and Airwaves played at the Nokia Theater for the party after the announcement.

The part of the show I worked was just for the press. Steve Balmer and some executives of other companies like HP, Intel, AMD, Toshiba, and probably one I’m forgetting sat on stage and talked about how excited they were about the new OS. The scene was quite posh to me — catering had about 10 people lined up at the door just holding coat hangers for the attendees, there was an attendant in the bathroom and great food all lined up. The craziest thing to me was that there were two people who’s job it was the entire presentation and before to stand by this hump in the floor where cables went through and tell people to watch their step. They did it with a huge smile on their face and a lovely and sincere manner every time a person walked by. A little too sincere for me.

It certainly was an experience. I learned some stuff about the shows and I learned that I can survive the work hours. Sunday I worked 6am-1am then came back on Monday 5hrs later at 6am and didn’t get back to the hotel until 2am Tuesday morning. Then we went out to the bar for about an hour after that. Good times! I got 84 hours last week so my paycheck will make it all worth it. Summer is supposed to be busy so definitely more to come!