4D Summit 2003 Photos
Here is a collection of photos from the 4D Summit in Santa Fe, October 14 - 19, 2003.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2003: Let me start out by making it clear that you won't find anything educational here. I just take photos of the fun part of the Summit. You can safely assume that the business part of the Summit was a huge success, with wonderful speakers, exciting news from 4D, and a great range of interesting topics.
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To start with, the hotel was terrific. Seen here from the parking garage across the street is the magnificent El Dorado (one word? two words?) Hotel. Designed to look like it was made of adobe (a-DO-be, for you Pee Wee Herman fans), it was centrally located, beautifully decorated, and small enough that it was very convenient to get to the different session rooms quickly. The food was also top notch. |
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The weather was quite perfect, too. It was sunny and warm during the day, and clear and slightly cool in the evenings. Beautiful sunsets and star-filled nights rounded out each day of the Summit. |
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I had a great time catching up with old friends at the opening reception, but the only picture I took was of Scott P. with his bag full of 35mm film. |
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Wednesday, October 15, 2003: On the first full day of the conference, my husband and I took a quick walk during the lunch break. |
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For Jeff's birthday celebration, we gathered the most fun developers we know, added beverages, a trivia book, passion fish, and squishy Orchard pears, and had a blast. Shown here (from left) are Tom B., me (Debbie), Tom D., Pete, Jeff, Bryan, David, Charles, Michael, Alex, and Christian. Late arrivals: John, Ant, Karl. |
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"Passion fish?" you're wondering. Yes. One of Jeff's birthday presents included a thin sheet of plastic in the shape of a fish, designed to test one's passion level. If the fish curls up in your hand, you are passionate; if it just lays there and does nothing, you are not. While Bryan read the documentation and Jeff took the test, David looked on in amazement. (Or is it concern?) Sadly, results were disappointing. |
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Michael, one of Orchard Software's newest developers, bravely took the test while Alex filled his head with trivia from "Schott's Original Miscellany," another of Jeff's birthday presents. |
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To add to the birthday festivities, Michael asked the guitar player performing in the bar if he would sing "Happy Birthday" in Jeff's honor. To Michael's surprise, it turned into a duet instead. The whole bar helped sing backup. |
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A good time was had by all. |
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Thursday, October 16, 2003: Here's a single photo from the day's conference sessions just to prove that I was there. |
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The "Evening with 4D" was held at Eaves Movie Ranch, a Western movie set in the Santa Fe desert. Fans of the movie "Silverado" will see the entire western town featured in the early part of the film (skip to minute 18). After enjoying some cocktails and appetizers, we were shocked when some bandits came into town and got away with a bag of money. The ladies of the night (each with hearts of gold) and the sheriff did their best to fight them off, but they got away. For the time being, justice was not served, but there will be a follow up to our story later in the evening. |
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Next, we ate a delicious barbecue dinner, catered by the El Dorado. Here are two of our dining companions, Charles and Brendan. |
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After dinner, Jeff didn't seem to mind the attentions of the lovely Western lasses... |
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... nor did Michael. |
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Members of the California-based 4D staff regaled some of us with some impromptu songs ... |
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... while others in attendance tried their luck at blackjack in the saloon. |
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Lahav and I joined one of the women onstage in the saloon (AKA Laurie, one of the owners of the ranch). |
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Apparently my camera has a zoom function on it. |
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Back to our wild west action outside, Brendan was called upon to help round up the bad guys. His attempts at learning to shoot made us all laugh and he walked away unsuccessful... |
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... so Laurent had to step in and take care of the bad guys himself. If you look closely, you'll see the smoke from Laurent's gun. The town sure did feel safer once the Law stepped in. |
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One of the activities was learning how to crack a whip. Despite my strong desire to master the skill, my complete lack of hand-eye coordination prevented it. Here is one of the townsfolk giving lessons. |
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Bryan gave it a try, too, and was more successful than I was. |
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Another fun activity was falling onto this giant hay-covered cushion. This is possibly the most flattering photo taken of me all night. |
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Let's zoom in on this gem. |
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Meanwhile, a country band was rocking the main lobby of the hotel across the street. Here are some diehards dancing the night away as the last buses were ready to depart. |
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Friday, October 17, 2003: I managed to be in my seat in time for the next day's sessions. |
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On the final day of the Summit, I got to read this man's conference badge. The combination of beer and a New Zealand accent the night before made me think I heard him introduced as Diamond. It turns out that his name is Damon from 4D Australia, which makes much more sense. |
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Here's Karl, one of our newfound friends from this year's Summit, who hails from Sweden. |
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We took advantage of the long lunch break to walk around Santa Fe a little more. Here's the Cathedral of St. Francis. |
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Here's Santa Fe Plaza. |
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It's a cute town filled with galleries and shops. |
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The final session of the Summit was Laurent's question-and-answer session. |
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That evening, we went out for dinner with some of our 4D friends. From left to right: me, my husband Tom, Michael, Christian, Jeff, Sally and Pete, and Alex. The photo is out of focus, but it represents great memories, so here it is. |
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Saturday, October 18, 2003: We started out on Saturday with a quick visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, just a block away from the hotel. We should have taken some pictures. We didn't. |
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On our way back to Albuquerque for our flight home, we spent some time at Sandia Peak. |
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We got a group shot of the Orchard Software developers to provide photographic evidence that we don't turn to dust if exposed to direct sunlight. |
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Here's the view from up here. Here, we're looking to the south, ... |
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... and zooming in on those peaks in the foreground, ... |
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... and zooming in even further on those pretty aspens turning yellow. |
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This is the view straight ahead, which is where we started from. |
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Looking to the north, ... |
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... and further up the ridge to the north. |
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Behind us is a ski lift that leads to mysterious places to the east. |
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After a half-hour or so, we headed back down in one of these tramcars. |
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Here we go! |
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I was especially glad that my husband was able to tag along this year to experience the fun of the Summit and the beauty of the Southwest. |
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So, we're riding ... |
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... and we're riding ... |
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... we're done. |
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We stopped to top off the tank in our rental minivan. |
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This little roadrunner was hanging out at the gas station for our amusement. |
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Here's the Albuquerque airport. |
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Check out the cool designs in the ceiling beams. Pretty! |
Copyright © Deborah Schilling/Thomas Bundy