Busy times...

On friday we drove down from Georgia's beautiful islands to Titusville/Florida to visit friends of us who formerly operated the most beautiful B&B on the Oregon Coast. We had a great evening together, a good home-cooked meal and good conversation.

Saturday we arrived to Orlando and after check-in into the Hilton Hotel, which was arranged by the German Visit U.S.A. Committee (we were invited as part of the German delegation), we left again to the adjecent Convention Center for registration. IPW is (as far as I remember) the largest tourism congress in the world, with 6500 participants of over 70 countries, sellers and suppliers and media(about 500 journalists in total, ca. 16 out of Germany). It's mostly about socializing and meeting people and in the evening we attended our first party (Colorado) in a market venue on the other side of town (shuttle busses).

Sunday started at 8 am with the "German Breakfast", then we spent (much too much) time at Media Brunch, which took place at "The Eye", an entertainment venture with Mme. Tussaud's, an aquarium and a new Ferris Wheel (see pic). Speeches and presentations were very lengthy and it got boring.

Media tours afterwards – there was a selection of about six or so and I was part of the Winter Park Tour (see above). Winter Park is one of the older cities in Florida, founded by northern businessmen in the late 19th century. Main attraction is the Morse Museum of American Art, which houses the world's largest collection of Tiffany glass. There is a chain of lakes, lined by beautiful mansions and connected by channels and we had a boat tour there first, but got soaking wet on the boat during a heavy rain shower. The restaurant Cask & Larder with the adjecent deli store (Swine & Sons), which was our last stop, is famous for its local, seasonal menu, they have their own microbrewery and smoke their own ham/sausages etc. (see pic). Great place and excellent food they served us!

Back at 5 pm in time to get ready for the grand opening party at Walt Disney World, a bus trip of about 40 min. from the hotel. What a strategic effort to bring a couple of thousand of people to one place and to feed and entertain them! Many different "food stations" and bars distributed on the grounds (see pic), serving a variety of food, rides and other fun were offered, and all just for the IPW members.

Monday: A full workday from early morning (8 am) to late, filled with "Media Marketplace", meetings with tourism reps from all over the U.S. at their and our tables (see pic). Not really fun, but some good meetings. At lunch we listened to a concert of "The Foreigners", the evening event took place in Sea World, unfortunately in pooring rain and with thunderstorms, causing that the dolphin show was cancelled at half-time due to lightning. Despite of ponchos we got wet again and felt very bad for the people working at the park.

Tuesday: Press conferences all morning, appointments on the trade floor in the afternoon. At lunch we had first-row seats for the "Broadway Show" (excerpts of different shows with original cast!), sponsored by New York City. For the first time we had been invited by NYC&Company to join them at their table. In the evening we attended three parties at different venues: Rocky Mountains International, Oregon and San Francisco (rather big-scale and legendary!). Media usually gets a lot of invitaztions to smaller-scale parties arranged by different states or cities and we had to select. Back to the room late.

Wednesday: It's almost over. After two press conferences in the morning and a bit of greeting and talking on the trade floor we called it a day in the afternoon and tried to organize our luggage for tomorrow's tour departure. The grand finale took place at Universal Studios and Harry Potter was the big attraction there. A fantastic world of fantasy... not much into that ourselves... Good food, we walked a round, met a couple of people, among them our dear Japanese friend Hiro, and were back at the hotel by bus at around 10 pm.