However, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for NAB 2010 in Las Vegas and the events surrounding it.

Although I have attended NAB for many years, I have always been the person asking the questions of the person in the booth. I was never the person in the booth. This year FORscene had a booth in the show, a pod featuring FORscene at the Chyron booth and another demo location set up at the BIM booth, all staffed by the creators of FORscene – our good colleagues from UK – based Forbidden Technologies plc; the two gentlemen on the ground in Los Angeles, California and our small contingent from here in Canada.

This was the first time I had met any of the people from the UK office and the first time both Lucy (La Grassa) and I met the California-based gentlemen. We all got along splendidly I am happy to say, which is good, because it was like a Monty Python adventure gone awry.

We had a small booth. How big a booth do you need to demo the world’s leading web-based video editing and management tool? All you need is a laptop, and an internet connection… maybe a big monitor so more than one person can watch at a time, right? We needed a bigger a booth! We were packed most of the time, usually with more than one demo and/or meeting going on at once. The second day we brought in more laptops. Word of mouth was spreading: if you want to “edit anywhere, anytime…now,” you had to see FORscene. I’m not complaining; it was wonderful!

Yes, it was wonderful being surrounded by all these heavily-accented fine gentlemen. Oddly, there were no two English accents alike. They were smart, they were funny, and they were very understanding. Day two of the show looked to be busier than day one. My first appointment of the day was at 9:30 am. There I sat with my laptop, proudly showing off what a powerful tool FORscene is when it hit. Hard, fast and violent. FOOD POISONING! Did I mention how understanding my colleagues were? By the time I left the show around 2:00 pm (never to return to NAB 2010) they had all pitched in, talking to people and covering appointments for me. Not one of them made me feel guilty for abandoning them so completely. When next I got to see them it was my last night in Vegas. They all came to our hotel for a farewell meal (did I mention how brave they were?) They had many tales from the remainder of the show to share with me and I appreciated every one of them. Most of all I appreciated my new FORscene family.

You probably have all heard about the nasty volcano in Iceland…and the nasty volcanic ash that grounded more than a few planes. Well, my little Monty Python troupe has yet to make it home. They were stranded for several days in Las Vegas. They are currently holed up in California. We don’t really know when they will make it home to the UK. That is up to Mother Nature and her motley crew. The Brits continue to work hard from their rooms with massive amounts of follow-up calls and emails and thanks to SKYPE I can talk to them when I need them.

Here’s the thing. All we need is a laptop and an internet connection and each other.

How was your NAB experience?

How My NAB 2010 Began