I had just finished talking with an exhibitor and turned around to leave his booth. Surprise, I ran into an old friend I haven’t seen since last year. Nick Miller from GE was walking down the aisle. He had made a wind presentation and had a chance to get out on the floor. It amazes me that in a crowd this big, you can run into friends. Our industry is a small world, but this is ridiculous.

Stop by the GeoDigital booth. They took a truck with LiDAR gear and drove down the street. Then they process the data clouds. The results are on a large monitor. You see all the distribution lines, streets, cars, - everything. It is amazing.

This place is so big. You really need to be organized in your approach to seeing it (forget about seeing it all). Unfortunately, I am not organized. So, I am still wandering and finding new exhibitors. Gosh, how can I miss some of these booths - they are so flashy, or big, or noise, or …

That is what makes this so great. Here I have been walking miles each day and I’m still finding new stuff. Well, that is why we come here.

Satish Ranade (vice chair of the T&D Committee) told me New Mexico State won the contest for the most students. He said Mississippi came close with 15, but NMSU’s 18 carried the day. I really think everyone was the winner. The students had a great opportunity. They saw so much here. Way to go professors - thanks for getting those kids out here!!

Well fans, here we are - the last day. It is a little sad. We have been here a week and NOLA has been a great host. The floor is pretty quiet right now. The vacuum cleaners are making most of the noise. The exhibitors look pretty tired. They have one more time to impress the attendees. Then they have to start tearing down the booths. What a lot of work to show us all the new toys.

The attendees are gathering outside the hall. They look tired too. I would say everyone had way too much fun judging by the expressions on their faces.

Walking around the floor with some young engineers can really be fun. They bring a freshness to what

we mature (old) engineers see. I have met Rob Morrow and Kris Johnson previously. They introduced me to Holly Spracklia. They are all from High Energy Inc, an engineering consulting firm from Denver. High Energy sent their young engineers to the Expo to learn about the new technologies. They sure had lots of smart grid questions, so I introduced them to Holly Bounds of Siemens. She took them into the Smart Grid Tour and let them play with the technology - thanks Holly.

The engineers tell me they really enjoyed the Siemens event. I hope you all do too.

Today is the big day for the Siemens Smart Grid Tour. They have a doom build across the street from the convention center. I went in there and was blown away! Be careful you don’t get carried away viewing the presentation on the ceiling. It is easy to keep leaning back until you almost fall over.

The 3D models are pretty neat too! they have interactive computer screens you can play with. Try not to miss this demo. It is worth the walk!

The Wednesday networking reception was another huge hit. PES put out plenty of food and drink. It seemed like there were serving tables about every 100′ all along the center aisle. Just for the heck of it, I walked past a half a dozen of these tables and found there were a few things different (food wise) along the way. I got to talk with several folks very happy to be able to mix on the floor.

I first met Carol Geofrey during my involvement in the Hurricane Ike restoration efforts. SouthWire started working to produce conductor a week before the hurricane hit. They had trucks on the road as soon as it was safe to travel. Manufacturers like SouthWire are one of the things so unique to our industry. They know our linemen need material to rebuild and they need right now. SouthWire wasn’t the only supplier working 24/7 to do this either. I am so proud of our industry. When you see the efforts we go to to restore power after ice storms, hurricanes, and other natural disasters it is fantastic.

Carol and I talked on the phone and sent lots of e-mails getting the story together to tell the industry, but we never met. This was the first chance I had to meet her face to face. It was great seeing and talking with her about our experiences. Hurricanes are one of those events that you have to be there to understand what takes place. I hope we don’t have to do it again, but if we do, we will be ready!