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Day 1: TWiT Cottage

During my first day in San Fran I was able to do a bit of driving/venturing.

As soon as I landed and got to my rental car I hit the road to M5 to see if I could find anyone from Mythbusters around but they were all in the shop filming and I’m not one to go knock. (I’m bold, but not that bold!) From there I drove off to the address I found online to M7. This is where Tory, Grant and Kari play. But that came up a bust as well. (If you know me at all then you know I eat, dream & live Mythbusters!)

So now with 2 strikes to the count I decided it’s time to get checked into the hotel. This proved to be an adventure all in itself. Seems in this economy the hotel staff unions figured it’s a GREAT time to strike and picked my hotel as their picket place for the week. So this entailed dealing with the following:

1. 90% of the front of the hotel being a picket line from 6am to 12pm. Armed with bull horns and chants.
2. Zero room service
3. Zero maid service (fresh towels sparingly provided on request only)
4. Zero gift shop service. (this means a $2 soda was going to cost me $6 in the mini-bar)

But I said OK this is no biggie. I’m only here for 2 nights anyway. So I quickly unpacked and hit the open road again. This time it was to Petaluma.

The drive was easy and very scenic. Lots of clear open sky, mountains, water and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Once I arrived in Petaluma I found my way to the TWiT Cottage, home of Leo Laporte’s TWiT net-casting network.

When I walked in, I first thought I was trespassing but was quickly welcomed in by Leo himself. He introduced himself and some of his staff and they gave me a quick tour of the studio where they were in the middle of a broadcast.

Since I knew enough geek speak and a bit about video/Internet broadcasting I also got to tour the upstairs where the large San was stationed and got to see the mixing studio as well. (I was told most people didn’t get to see that.)

In the middle of discussions about how TWiT operates my only question was “how much is the power bill?” I mean come on. I have the KING of the Internet at my disposal and my big question is that? Needless to say I was a little star stuck & all smiles.

I have to say meeting Leo was a really cool. He took an interest in me, why I was in San Fran and what I did for a living. He made time for me and really engaged me. He’s one class act!

So after getting some free TWiT schwag I was back on the road. Then on the road its where I realized I was so “star struck” that I forgot, despite me having a camera in my pocket, to get a photo with Leo & an autograph. Maybe next time?!? (Strike 3!)

Day2: Autodesk Owners Meeting

The next day of my trip I was off to Autodesk’s offices for their Retail & Hospitality Owners Meeting to learn what Autodesk has in store for their retail customers and learn from existing customers how they are utilizing the software successfully and where they are not.

It’s a really informational event that I will not bore you with the details. I’ll just say that I met a lot of people/connections & learned a lot about what we still need to do in addition to how our competition is doing with the same things. Very much worth the time & expense!

But while we where there we were given a tour of their gallery. This is where they show off how their products help industries all over the world. Here I learned how almost every special effect movie & TV show uses Autodesk’s Maya software. (Just think Avatar & LOTR)

We also saw how car manufactures us their Inventor software for development. Everything from car parts to car commercials and concepts. They design the parts and then print them in 3D printers. (The motor cycle is 100% plastic and each part was designed, printed and assembled.)

Then we get to Lego’s. Back with I was growing up you had 4 basic shapes and they all allowed you to make a box or a rectangle. Now they have hundreds of shapes and play-sets that allow you to make anything. To come up with those they also use their software and figure out how many of what shape/color is needed to build not only a little play-set but a large sculpture.

They also utilize the software to come up with assembly instructions on how to build the things. (If you have kids, you know these well!) They had a Dino sculpture with a cut-away in it to show us not only the finished piece on one side but what it takes to build it from the inside out.

Autodesk’s software was also used for the “One Child, One Laptop” program. From concept to finished product in addition to a lot of virtual 3d planning tools that they’re developing now.

And after this meeting I promptly jumped back into the car and drove back to M5 to try my luck again. I found an employee who informed me I missed them by 30 minutes. (NOT AGAIN!)

So I made my way to Pier 38 to the Hard Rock to eat, drink and walk along the bay. Here I was able to view a huge sea lion gathering & Alcatraz Island in addition to just seeing the great views of the bay.

Day 3: M5 Again

So on my last day I had really nothing I could do since I had to be at the airport by 10am for check-in. I was still on Cincy time so I didn’t sleep much, Since there was zero room service and nothing on the TV (outside of infomercials) I gathered my things and checked out of the hotel and started off to M5 to try my luck yet again.

I was there pretty early and kinda felt like I was on a steak-out. When I got there I saw 1 car already there and though “man I got here too late again! They’re already inside working!” but I continued to wait and drink my morning Diet Coke. During which I got to see/hear 100 Mexicans get “Lead Certified” (not leed) by simply signing a clipboard and a 15 min meeting. (I don’t think I’d trust that roofing company!)

A lot of traffic came and went where M5 is located & just about the time I figured I had to go I hit pay dirt. Adam Savage drove up.

With my heart pounding with excitement I walked up & introduced myself. He was extremely friendly & more than talkative. We talked briefly about where I was from, why I was there, (he asked if I came all the way from Cincy to just say hi.) & his new venture in creating a production company with Jamie. Then he signed my copy of Skepticality with him on the cover, posed for a picture, we shook hands & parted ways. Him going into a day of myth-busting & me heading to the airport smiling so big I could have ate a banana sideways!

The only way that could have gotten any cooler was by meeting the rest of the MB team!

So with learning a lot from Autodesk (and some of our partners) and getting to meet two icons I’m big fans of, I’d call this trip a success!

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