First and foremost I want to thank Soldiers’ Angel’s for helping me get to the convention that was held in Las Vegas. Helping me get out there enabled me to connect with many great people. My documentary projects are deeply associated with the folks that came. I must say that I had the great opportunity to hang out with Matt ‘Blackfive’ Burden. He has much success in becoming as close to the media as you can possibly get without jumping that fence. He is a milblogger himself and was inspired to start his blog because of a good friend of his that was killed in Iraq. I got into Vegas last Friday and on the way over to the Mirage Resort & Casino, I sent a text to Matt to see where he was at. Food was on my mind and wanted to see if he wanted to meet. Luck would have it that he had the same plans. When I met him, Jim Hanson was with him. Jim is better known as Uncle Jimbo on Matt’s site. Jim is a riot and I look forward to talking with him more in the future. Anyway, we had a quick lunch and chatted like soldiers would do in any situation. After lunch we went up to Matt’s suite and previewed the Veteran Homelessness documentary. I got some great feedback and some additional ideas that I think I will compliment the current documentary and other projects with.
That night there was a planned event at the Penthouse Club. Matt had the connections to get a private room and open bar for all the people who were attending the Milblog convention. It was a blast and that is all I am going to say about that. I met many people who knew me from my previous blogging days. FbL, Chuck Z, Carren, Toby, Wolf, John Donovan, JP, Froggy, Sean, AWTM, Mr & Mrs Greyhawk, Bouhammer. Just to name a few. Yes these are just user-names but check their sites out. All great people.
The next day was the actual convention and I rode over with Matt. We grabbed our badges and carried on to the convention room. Apparently when I registered I only got the exhibits only badge. So with some charm and my vicious good looks, I convinced the lady to let me in the room. So it all worked out in the end. The day was packed full of panels and great discussions. I won’t get into all the panels because so many others have already written about them here and here.
My personal favorite was the War Reporters panel. This is the area that I best connect with now. Toby Nunn in particular has written a book and been featured in a documentary called Bad Voodoo’s War. He is also working on another documentary dealing with PTSD. So it was great to collaborate and chat with people with similar interests. I will lean on Toby for some ideas with my upcoming documentary dealing with veteran suicide.
Later that night I hung out with Matt, Jim, Wolf and Jack Holt. Jack works for the Office of The Secretary of Defense. He is a great guy and what he is doing is going to change the face of the DoD, which by the way, about time! It was great to get his point of view and to hear that the DoD is taking steps to improve their way of communicating. We met Jack at a VIP invite only party at the Hilton. We chatted with a few folks and decided it was time for a different scenery. To be honest, I don’t even remember the Hotel we ended up at. I was too engrossed in conversation. It was a great time and thanks Ward for the round of drinks!
I finally headed back to my room and settled in for the night. I didn’t have an early flight out but in Vegas, you have to give at least 2 hours prior to your departure if you want to make it. Once I finally got through all the check in’s, security and other bodily inspections I found a slot machine with my name on it. I put one dollar in it and won $60! I gladly cashed out and thanked Las Vegas and got on my plane soon after.
The entire trip I can’t possibly put in words but it was one that will stick with me for a while. The networking and establishment of new friends is priceless. I can’t say that I honestly like Vegas a whole bunch. It’s almost too colorful for my country boy taste. After the first 24 hours I was missing good ol’ New Hampshire. So it was good and I look forward to the next event.