Chris P. O'Connell

Laptops and gawky long lines at Starbucks by day, loud drunken antics and scantily clad women by night... This is the dichotomy that is the SIGGRAPH graphics and interactive media convention hosted in New Orleans. New Orleans in and of itself is an enigmatic town, in some ways reminiscent to me of Boston, but with it’s own distinct southern flare and funk. From the airport to the infamous Bourbon Street, the town is an abrasively rebounding historical city with a cool jazz and blues backbone and a late night stench that gives New York a run for it’s money. It proved an interestingly bizarre backdrop for a nerd-fest such as SIGGRAPH, complete with hordes of technology pros and job-hungry creative geeks like myself, all swarming to attend. In addition to trying to network while pimping our demo reels, my buddies and I had a very interesting time both in and out of the conference. From playing with crazy new technology by day to exploring the Bourbon street area at night, some of the wee

This week, my roommates and I are attending the SIGGRAPH computer graphics exhibition in New Orleans. We haven't even arrived in New Orleans yet, and I already can tell this is gonna be an adventure. First off, when I initially booked the trip, at the time, I could not find any affordable packages with direct flights to Louisiana. Thus, at the moment, I am typing this from Tennessee due to the unorthodox route indicated below. Also, to add further wackiness, my zany roommate Andrew has proved in his own little way that you can get away with saying "bomb" on an airplane. :P This is only 3 hours into the trip with the terror alert level at black watch plaid ... feel free to stay tuned... ;)