SIC 2005 was a very worthwhile experience.

Although there is always lots of good information in the sessions, the most valuable parts of the Shareware Industry Conference are those derived from networking and the camaraderie among people who work in the same industry. Many of these people have become friends and I look forward to seeing them again, hopefully before next year.

I want to extend big thanks to Mike Callahan (a.k.a., Dr. File Finder) and the rest of the SIAF Board of Directors for putting on such a wonderful event.

As much as I would like to expound on the many lessons learned, excellent people met, and several great people missed, it is too late (or early) to do so. The story goes like this…

I was scheduled to leave Denver via Amtrak to Chicago, en route back to East Lansing. Also on the train were Fred and Jan Clabuesch of SigmaTech Software, heading to Flint, and Tim and Sharon Thousand of Scooter Software, who were driving from Chicago back to Madison, Wisconsin. Since the California Zephyr was not scheduled to depart until 7:25pm, we made plans to wander the Lower Downtown (“LoDo”) area.

To make the very long story short, I was able to eat at Dixon’s Downtown Grill, which had “Solitaire” painted on its windows, and browse the famous Tattered Cover Book Store, which had a display containing Solitaire Coffee and MahJongg Tea. We spent lots more time in conversation before actually taking our bags to Union Station. Our train was hours late, so we were there for about 5 hours.

Making matters worse, the train lost more time on the way to Chicago, so much so that our huge layover was completely lost. Amtrak had to hire a van to drive several of us bound for Michigan to our destinations. As the only rider going to East Lansing, I was able to be dropped off directly at home, but by then it was after 3:00am Tuesday. Unfortunately, Fred and Jan were the last on the van and still had another hour of travel just to get to their car to drive the last stint. Ouch.

That brings us to the present, so while I assimilate all the knowledge I gained, I will just wrap it up with:

Final Common Ground update: Sunday I missed Johnny Rivers, who would have been fun to have seen for the first time, and The Beach Boys, who I saw at Common Ground just a few years ago. Reports are that all the shows were consistently good, but with no home run act this year. The lineup was at least good enough that I hope they can schedule next year on a different week than SIC 2006!