Yesterday was the Vancouver leg of the AMD Microsoft Tech Tour. I missed the tour last year because I was in Taipei during the time they swung through Vancouver.
For whatever reason, the tour was smaller than two years ago – the event no longer takes up the entire ballroom. The presentation format has changed as well. Instead of the interview/talk show style, the tour now features more boring one-sided presentations. There was a break during the “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” session but overall, the event was damn boring and lasted way too long.
Joining Sarah and I at the tour was Stephen Fung, Paul Mudhar and Michael Kwan. We try to make the best of a boring situation but pulling some stunts. We ate dinner on the stage because there was a table there. We had almost finished when an AMD guy took us to get off. I also took over the Visiontek booth because no one was there. I opened up their box and gave away all their T-shirts. Here are some photos.
The Show Floor
The show floor had about dozen companies showing off their stuff. Every vendor had people manning their booth except for VisionTek. I guess they missed their flight.
Taking Over The VisionTek Booth
Since VisionTek was a no-show, I decided to take over their booth. See that box behind me? It contained 100 T-shirts and a bunch of VisionTek LED lights. I guess I could have taken the entire box for myself but I ended up giving most of the T-shirts away.
Andy The Host
The host of the AMD Tech Tour is Andy. He has hosted this event for as long as I can remember. However, this is the first time I’ve seen him use a T-shirt gun.
Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?
This was the only entertaining part of the tour. I can understand why attendance has gone down in recent years. They need to bring back the old interview format.
The Free Stuff
It wouldn’t be an AMD event if they didn’t give away any free stuff. There was a bunch of stuff given away in a lucky draw. Stephen won a MSI motherboard. I didn’t win anything but I made off with my share of free stuff, including thirteen T-shirts. I guess if I kept the VisionTek shirts, I would have over 100.
Of course, I’m going to give away most of this stuff because I don’t really have any use for it. I think I’ll start by giving away a couple of VisionTek T-shirts. Just reply to this post and you’re entered. I’ll draw two names on Friday and those two will have a nice T to wear this summer.
Good luck.
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