Last week I was in beautiful Del Mar, CA for ThinkTank and I’m happy to report that it was a fantastic event. I’ll admit I was a little skeptical at first knowing all the crazy thing DK would have in store but it really all fits together.

This is the one event that you should attend if you need or want to make connections in the industry but are not very good at meeting people and networking at the typical conferences. The way DK has structured the activities it would literally be impossible to spend 3 days there and not at least meet every person.

As a result of ThinkTank, I also discovered surfing which could possibly be my obsession over the next 15 years.

My only criticism is that sometimes the event isn’t serious enough. But then again, if you are really serious about growing your business, go to Elite Retreat. Yeah DK, I know that’s a shameless plug, but it’s also true. ThinkTank is a wonderful, fun event but it is a lot harder (in my opinion) to get serious and see a return from what you do at ThinkTank than it is at Elite Retreat where there is a laser-focus on results.

All told, DK and his team put together a well-organized (much to my surprise) and fantastic 3 days in the sun and surf. Bravo.

Tuesday – I flew in Tuesday afternoon, dropped my bags at the hotel and headed to Pubcon. I never even made it, as I stopped off at the Renaissance and immediately got drinks. We had a great meal at the Wynn before heading to Pure where Rubicon hosted a table. Suffice to say 5 bottles later, we were pretty lubricated. I do remember bargaining with the limo drivers out front to give some of our friends a ride home. One moron kept insisting that he’d do it for free, but any Vegas veteran knows where a free limo takes you. I got one guy down to $40 for a stop at the Wynn and then the Palms. Not bad.

Wednesday – For some reason this night is a lot more blurry than it should be. I woke up pretty late, hit the gym, and then spent a few hours at Pubcon. The show floor was a pretty big joke. I was actually wondering if they had a secret room with more booths. Anyway.. the fine folks at Rubicon again hosted (and definitely made a name for themselves) a party in their suite at the Wynn. Like Shoe said we were planning on playing poker at midnight, but somehow midnight came and went and we were still up in the suite. When we finally did leave, I ended up walking around the Wynn with a bottle of champagne that I proceeded to finish by myself.

Thursday – I really have to give a shout out to Purpose INC SEO for their Poker tournament. Not only was it exceptionally well-organized but I thought it was a great networking event. The very nature of the tournament-style poker game meant you had to move around tables a bit and meet new people. Plus, when you went out there was nothing else to do but chat with other people who busted out. I made it about half way before busting out. Definitely check out the Name the SEO contest and score yourself a t-shirt. I normally don’t pick up t-shirts like this because I won’t wear them, but they were so cool I snagged 2! (Don’t be mad DK). The only bad thing was that Shoemoney took second place which meant we were there all night. I had promised a friend who is a host at a club that we’d bring in a crew, so we didn’t make it there until 3am. John Reese met up with us there, and we stayed until 8 or 9am before grabbing breakfast and crashing, HARD.

Friday – I set my alarm for 1am so I could wake up and make a decision on the Pubcon. While I barely had the energy to make it, I reasoned that I could go to Pubcon for a few hours and still make it back to the hotel to hit the gym and sleep before dinner at 10pm with a bunch of friends from Minneapolis who were in town to see Roger Huerta kick some ass. I went 2/3 on that plan. Spent a few hours at Pubcon, made it to the gym, but no sleep. I met up with my friends at N9ne Steakhouse at the Palms for a ridiculously good dinner. After that we went to Pure again, and needless to say had a great time. Another long night.

Saturday – This was the day I had been waiting for. I was originally planning to go to the Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale fight at the Palms, but the guy I was supposed to go with kinda flaked out at the last minute. No big deal I knew it would work out. Lucky for me, my friend Jay who came down from Minneapolis to see the fight had an extra ticket. Not only was the Pearl at the Palms the ultimate venue to see a fight, but Minneapolis fighter Roger Huerta absolutely beat some ass. I’m really looking forward to seeing Huerta become the lightweight champion. Also, I wish they weren’t in the same division, but props to Kenny Florian for being one of the coolest athletes I’ve ever met. This was the second time I had talked to him (first being 77 in Cincinatti) and he’s never too good to take a minute to chat. After the phenomenal (maybe best fight I’ve ever seen) fight we went up to Moon for the after-party. I have some great pictures from Moon, but I’ll have to upload them later.

All in all what a great trip to Vegas. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things, so I’ll probably update this post. You might be wondering why the hell I would take the time to go to the gym while I’m in Vegas. More on that later…but for now I need to pack my bags again.

Color me impressed. (Sorry for the craptastic pictures, the morning light was coming into my kitchen window).

Here are the requisite un-boxing pictures. I wouldn’t be a blogger without ‘em.

First thing that struck me was how small it actually is. For whatever reason, looking at pictures online I thought it was going to be pretty big. The whole thing is basically smaller than my palm:

From some of what I had read on it, I expected it to come pre-registered to my Amazon account and I expected my books to load as soon as I turned it on. I was a little disappointed, but it gave me a chance to try out the keyboard to put in my email and password. The keyboard is actually great. By no means is it a desktop keyboard, but it beats a Treo or a Sidekick any day. Right off the bat I was able to easily type my info in. By the time I hit enter and went back to the home screen, the books I had purchased were available on the Kindle. Now that is magic.

The last thing is the screen. I think its absolutely fantastic. You can read it at any angle, and it looks just like paper. Yes the milliseconds while it changes pages are annoying, but its really not that bad. Definitely not a deal breaker by any means.

I’ll update this post if anyone has any specific questions.

Anyway, last Saturday I was lucky enough to score some tickets to the Italy vs France game at San Siro in Milan. Needless to say the tickets were almost impossible to find but a friendly Italian concierge was able to score some row 2 lower-level tickets with the help of a little grease.

The event was one of the most fantastic experiences I’ve ever had. Words can’t describe it honestly. We got there a little late and as we walked in 90,000 Italians were singing one of Pavarotti’s most famous songs in tribute to the great tenor. It was one of the most emotional things I’ve experienced. After that there was the French national anthem that was barely audible over the boos and whistling of the Italian fans. After the comments made by France’s trainers, there was no love for France in the stadium. The game itself was somewhat of a disappointment, ending in a 0-0 tie. In any case, the experience of 90,000 proud fans is something else. I thought Wild hockey games were exhilarating, and the Xcel center only holds 18,000.

The other thing that strikes me is how natural it is to make GOOD espresso. Do a Google search for espresso tamping and you’ll see all sorts of ridiculous discussion about how you should go about tamping an espresso. Watch a barista in Italy and see how much thought he puts into it. Two quick flips of the doser, a touch on the built-in tamper on the doser, and lock it into the machine. Out comes a perfect shot. Granted the grind is set well, the group head pressure is set correctly and the machine is kept clean. But they don’t put all this pomp and circumstance to making a good espresso, its just comes naturally.

I figured I’d do a few posts with observations on Italy while I’m here. I truly love this country and I’m proud to be Italian.