James Does Dallas

Sorry for the title, I couldn't resist.

I've been in Dallas for a few days for a conference hosted by my employer, Forrester Research. There was a fair bit o' drama about my participation in this conference because I worked myself into the ground last week, leaving me without a voice for nearly four days. I lost it on Friday afternoon and could not speak until this morning, Tuesday. It was crazy to be without it that long (probably nice for the people around me). 

That would all be well and good were it not for the fact that I had to offer the keynote address to the conference attendees this morning in Dallas! So through a few minor miracles, somehow, even though when I woke up this morning and didn't have a voice, two hours later, when I went on stage to speak, I was able to speak, albeit somewhat hoarsely, for 45-mins. Since then, the voice has been rough, but I still have it. Prayer really works, is all I'll say. (You can read more about the conference if you really want to on my professional blog.)

My favorite part about being here is how Texas-sized everything is. We're staying at the Gaylord Texan resort. It's a resort just outside of Dallas, built alongside a big lake, and it's ginormous. And it's 100% Texas. The decor, the hair of the employees, everything. I'm loving it. 

I saw a few things I want to share (click on any photo to see it enlarged, sorry for the poor quality of my Blackberry photos):

 

This is an image of the carpet on the floor of the ballroom where our main sessions occur. Notice that the border of the image is a leather belt, with a shiny belt buckle on it every couple of feet. Intertwined in all this is a chuckwagon wheel and lots of steer horns. Yeehaw!

This is the lobby of the ballroom. It's enormous, you really can't tell from this picture, but just a case in point: see those lanterns on the left wall? Yes, they are indeed the same size as those human beings beside them. They are giantly out of proportion, just like everything else.

This is the interior lobby of the resort, just a piece of the 4.5 acres it encloses. There's a life-sized recreation of the Alamo facade to the left, an old mission bell tower, rivers and waterfalls running through here. Again, this picture doesn't do it justice, but trust me, it's as big as everything else.

I'm here through Thursday night where I give another speech to a client who is taking advantage of me being here to have me speak to a gathering downtown. Then I fly home, exhausted, to a loving family. Hopefully I'll still have a voice then.