Not, as you might think, that some guy in the street tried to strike up a conversation, but that Randy Eisenmen, Handango’s CEO, for some reason decided to lift me up about 2 feet when he gave me the Handango Champion Award we won for eWallet. To say I was shocked doesn’t even begin to cover it – no one has tried that in many years. Apparently I looked so freaked out that he had to send someone over to ask if I was OK (I was fine. I was worried about him – I was having visions of him falling over, and seeing headlines like “Ilium Software Exec Kills Handango CEO”. I’m short, but I’m really not all that small). Anyway, it was lots of fun. Someone asked Randy why he’d picked me up (everyone else just got hugs or handshakes) and he was blaming Ken Landau from LandWare, who won the award before ours (congratulations, Ken), but I’m pretty sure that was just an excuse. If companies get their personalities from their CEOs, I can certainly see why Handango is so high-energy.
Of course I was delighted that eWallet was again recognized by the judges as one of the top mobile apps (and by the user community as being worth the nomination). And of course I was overjoyed that InScribe (which we’ll be releasing this month) was picked by the judges of the UMPC contest as one of the 3 best programs submitted for the UMPC. Both Marc and I are really excited by the UMPCs, and very happy that InScribe was recognized. And now that we’ve won another UMPC (courtesy of Microsoft, thank you to them), I might actually get a chance to use it.
The whole Summit was lots of fun – thanks, everyone at Handango. I got to meet some very interesting people, catch up with some old friends, and even listen to a few presentations. As well as eat and drink too much. Everything made it back, including the new hardware, all the swag (what was that thing from Verizon?) and of course the Champion Award, which is now in its place of honor on our awards bookcase. It’s a good thing my suitcase expands, but not so good that I do.
Once again, many thanks to Handango, the sponsors and the judges.