NISOD 2008 - The Shopping Begins...

Well, we have all successfully arrived in Austin Texas for NISOD 2008. It was an uneventful 12 hour travel day (why does it always seem to take 12 hours to fly anywhere? Hmmm...). After checking in to our various hotels (we have strategically surrounded the Austin Convention Center - there is no escape), the shopping genes kicked in and we were off to San Marcos Texas and the outlet mall. Hundreds of stores, thousands of people, it's a real cultural experience. Everything from half-price Armani suits (still $1,000.00), to alligator shoes ($2,000.00) to $10.00 sunglasses, just about every store imaginable was there.

In fact there are so many stores, the crew is headed back to San Marcos later today to start in on the other outlet mall across the road.

We also discovered, thanks to our veteran attendees at NISOD the magic of the Whole Foods Market - what an amazing place - you name it, they had it all fresh and priced well. We could sure use one of those home (just in case there are any budding Nova Scotia entrepreneurs reading this and looking for an opportunity).

So today it's more shopping, returning the rental car and getting ready for the conference which kicks off in ernest bright and early tomorrow morning...